LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Shelf...i..S„S 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



STUDIES 



RELIGIOUS PROBLEM 



OUR COUNTRY. 



A REVIEW OF 



THE GROWTH OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IN NUMBERS, 

WEALTH AND GOOD WORKS, CONTRASTED WITH 

THE GROWTH OF OUR COUNTRY IN 

POPULATION WEALTH AND VICE. 



m MAY 5 WR' 



BY REV. MILTON H. STINK, A. M. 



YORK, PA.: 
LUTHERAN PRINTING HOUSS, 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1888 by 

REV. MILTON H. STINE, A. ML, 
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



TO MY AGED PARENTS, 

WHO LABORED AND PRAYED FOR ME SO LONG, 
THIS LITTLE VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY 

DEDICATED. 



" We belong to that nation whose great lot it is to be placed, with the full 
inheritance of freedom, on the freshest soil in the noblest site between Europe 
and Asia, a nation young, whose kindred countries, powerful in wealth, 
armies and intellect, are old. It is a period when a peaceful migration of na- 
tions similar in the weight of numbers to the warlike immigration of the early 
middle ages, pours its crowds into the lap of our more favored land, there to 
try, and at times to test to the utmost, our institutions, — institutions which are 
our foundations and buttresses, as the iaw which they embody and organize is 
our sole and sovereign master." — Lieber. 



INTRODUCTION. 

I offer no apology for inflicting this book on 
the public. I wish however to say that I am not 
altogether responsible for this infliction. That 
class of people who live largely in the past, who 
say, " the world is getting worse every day/' these 
are the people who have caused me to write this 
little volume. I believe the world is slowly but 
surely getting better. I believed this before I 
culled the facts of this book. I believe it more 
firmly now. I think every rational being who will 
take the time to investigate for himself must be- 
lieve this. The contest between good and evil it 
is true, is far from ended. In no country under 
the sun is the battle raging more furiously than in 
our own. I have endeavored to present both the 
encouraging and discouraging signs of the times. 
I have based my argument and conclusion upon 
the words of the Master, " By their fruits ye shall 
know them." Dr. Leonard W. Bacon recently 
said, " nothing lies worse than figures unless it be 
facts" If he be correct than the argument and 
conclusion of this volume mean little ; but he isn't. 
Some of the figures herein contained mean little 
outside pf comparisons. 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

I claim little originality for many of the 
thoughts in this book. I have gathered my in- 
formation from Census reports, Encyclopedias, 
Reviews, Reports, and works on the great ques- 
tions of the day. 

The audacity which induces me to inflict these 
chapters on my readers was prompted by my 
friends who said " publish, publish.'' Owing to 
my pastoral duties and my natural desire for brev- 
ity, my discussion of the different topics may be 
considered inadequate. The design of this volume 
is simply to spur thought on the great questions 
herein touched upon. Every true American should 
be interested in the great social and religious prob- 
lems of our country. Every true Christian needs 
to be awake, because his home, his religion, his 
country are involved. 

If therefore this little volume, in the provi- 
dence of God, becomes the means of awakening 
the indifferent in the Church of Christ, or of en- 
couraging the Christian worker, or rebuking the 
openly wicked I shall be amply repaid. 

The Author, 

Lebanon, Pa., J/arc/t, 1888. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 
Introduction 4 

CHAPTER I. 

The condition of our country's development before and at the begin- 
ning of the present century 9 

CHAPTER II. 

Our growth in territory — our development of natural resources — our 

manufactories and growth in wealth 17 

CHAPTER III. 

The rapid growth of the Church in the United States in comparison 
with the growth of population and* the growth of the Church in the 
world 30 

CHAPTER IV. 

The amount of money expended in church erection in different periods 
is shown to be increasing with our wealth. This fact however can 
scarcely be regarded more than a sign of benevolence 38 

CHAPTER V. 

The work of the church of to-day of our country in Foreign and Home 
Missions contrasted with her work in earlier years. What she must 
accomplish to be true to her opportunities 40 

CHAPTER VI. 

Development of the Church of Christ (continued.) The Sunday School. 
Its origin, growth in numbers and influence. The American S. S. 
Union. S. S. literature. Societies of Christian Endeavor. Origin, 
rapid growth, work. The Y. M. ('. A. Origin, growth, and aim. 
"Young Christian Association, 1 ' M White Ribbon Army," " Boys' 
Brigade," "Good Templars," " Bible Societies. " 59 



8 CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Intemperance — the greatest foe to the Church and the home, the instiga- 
tor of crime, the parent of poverty. The frightful increase in 
intemperance everywhere. The saloon in politics. Remedies : 
High License, Education, Prohibition. Favorable signs 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Sabbath desecration. The divine command. God's greatest gift to 
man, Beecher, Emerson. Results of Sabbath desecration. In- 
creased laxity of Sabbath Laws and their enforcement. How the 
Sabbath is broken. Personal liberty and politicians. Sabbath 
Associations. The need of increased Christian vigilance 

CHAPTER IX. 

Romanism. Its growth in numbers and wealth. Its principles and its 
aspirations. Changes in foreign countries. Statistics opposed to 
our institutions, civil and ecclesiastical. Prophecies. How to be 
defeated no 

CHAPTER X. 

Crime, the fruit of existing forces. Comparative statistics. Our 
country not alone in the frightful exhibit. Strong drink and crime. 
Reformative work necessary. Improvement over past 123 

CHAPTER XL 

Retarding influences (continued.) Socialism. Labor and capital. What 

is needed. Some capitalists. Improvement over the past. ... 136 

CHAPTER XII. 

General summary. Our institutions of self-government the result of 
christian influences. The same is true of the development of our 
natural resources — of our commerce — popular education : sciences, 
arts and literature — our charities. It has abolished slavery, enno- 
bled the condition of woman and home. Two theories — which 
the Scriptural one. Exhortation 150 



CHAPTER I. 

THE CONDITION OF OUR COUNTRY'S DEVELOPMENT BEFORE 
AND AT THE BEGINNING OF THE PRESENT CENTURY. 

" Mighty alike for good or ill 
With mother-land, we fully share 
The Saxon strength — the nerve of steel, — 
The tireless energy of will, — 
The power to do, the pride to dare." 

Whittier. 

One hundred and eleven years ago there was 
born a new nation, the Republic of the United 
States of America. Though her origin was hum- 
ble, and crowned heads predicted for her a short 
life, she is to-day one of the greatest nations of 
the earth. Already she is in advance of European 
nations in those things which confer the richest 
blessings in this life. In fact, it seems as if she 
were destined, in the providence of God, to lead 
mankind into that second Eden, where no destroy- 
ing angel shall ever enter. 

It is our purpose to examine into the condition 
of the religious progress which this nation has 
made, by contrasting it with her material growth. 
We will likewise take a brief glance at the foes 
which threaten our domestic happiness and our 
very existence as a nation. It will thus become 
apparent, whether we can sustain the assertion, 
that the United States is the hope of the world, 
civilly, morally, and religiously. 
2 



IO STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

To do this we must take a brief glance at the 
condition of things when this our nation was born. 
We must follow her in her unparalleled growth 
from her birth in 1876 to the year 1887, the first 
centennial of the adoption of her constitution. 

The bushel of wheat (standing as the syno- 
nym for all agricultural products) is the basis of 
all capital. It behooves us therefore to take a 
glance at the agricultural condition of our land in 
her early history. Even the most civilized nations 
of Europe during the sixteenth, seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries made little progress compared 
with the nineteenth century, in the cultivation of 
the soil and the gathering of crops ; but in Amer- 
ica our forefathers were behind their kindred in the 
Old world. 

When the Pilgrim fathers came to this country, 
the land was covered with forests which they 
found difficult to destroy in order that they might 
raise a few simple crops. Whilst they brought 
edged tools with them, the manner in which the 
natives cleared the soil was by no means unusual 
with them. The Indians cleared the land by col- 
lecting wood around green trees. To this fire was 
set and the bark burned. They roasted the life 
out of the giants of the forest in the same way in 
which they burned it out of the giant hearts of 
our ancestors. 

The ground was dug up with rude stone hoes 
or clam shells. Into these holes from three to four 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. II 

feet apart, these pioneer farmers planted their 
corn. Those who lived near the sea would drop a 
fish or two into each hole as a fertilizer. Thus it 
was that they ate fish in their corn as well as with 
it. And thus it was that they became the ances- 
tors of a large-brained race, still so prominent in 
our New England States ! 

As early as 1617 some ploughs were set to 
work in the Virginia plantation ; but the governor 
complained for the want of " iron for ploughs and 
harness for the cattle." The first patent for a cast 
iron plough was issued in 1797 to a man in New 
Jersey. 

We can well imagine that the crops cultivated 
with such implements were small indeed. 

The cereals were gathered with the sickle and 
threshed with the flail. This work occupied the 
farmer's time during weary months from early 
morn until the stars shone at night. 

Who does not remember the familiar sticks 
and eel skin ! We recall Cowper's words : 

" Thump after thump resounds the constant flail 
That seems to swing uncertain and yet falls 
Full on the destined ear." 

Our forefathers knew nothing of the many 
little conveniences of life which in our day have 
become a veritable necessity. 

In those days no butcher drove from house to 
house in the country with choice fresh meats. 
Game and salt meats were the almost universal 
food for nine long months in the year. 



12 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

The furniture in the houses was of the rudest 
and most imperfect kind. Every man was his 
own joiner. The richest then slept in beds and 
ate from tables which would be considered too 
rude and uncomfortable by the poorest peasant in 
our land to-day. The humblest American work- 
man can have a better furnished home in our times 
than could a prince in the days of Captain Smith 
or Peter Stuyvesant. The cooking utensils of 
those times were as primitive as the farming im- 
plements and house furniture. There was an open 
fire-place upon which huge logs burned. Over 
this roaring fire the settler's simple dinner boiled 
in an iron kettle. At night the whole family 
gathered around this huge fire-place to recite 
stories, make plans, and, above all, to keep warm. 

It was not till 1829 that the lucifer match was 
invented. Coal oil, as a burning fluid, was un- 
known before 1826, and did not come into com- 
mon use until about thirty years ago. Illuminating 
gas was not used before 1792, and then only as an 
experiment by a William Murdoch of Cornwall, 
England. In 1813 London bridge was lighted 
with gas and the city soon afterwards. Before 
this, London was lighted with fat lamps, one being 
placed in front of every tenth door. The stores 
then were not stocked with calicoes and ginghams 
of artistic designs at prices marvelously low. 
Then almost every home had a huge timber loom 
and a spinning wheel. Crompton's spinning mule 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 1 3 

was not invented until 1775. ^^ e power-loom 
came thirteen years afterwards, and the cotton gin 
in 1793 ; but none of these were in common use 
before the nineteenth century. In those days 
young ladies could not think of going to house- 
keeping in less than two years after their marriage, 
unless their arrangements were completed before. 
The flax from which their clothing, their sheets, 
their towels were made, was often sown by their 
own hands, then weeded and pulled and rotted 
and broken and swingled and spun and woven. 

In those days everything was sewed by hand. 
As the wealth of our people began to increase 
their wants became more numerous, and the con- 
dition of sewing women, even in this country, was 
worthy of the deepest commiseration. In 1842 
the first patent for a sewing machine was issued 
in this country to J. J. Greenough of Washington, 
D. C. The machine, it seems, was green enough, 
never to come into use. To Elias Howe belongs 
the honor of constructing the first practical sew- 
ing machine. Now the world is full of them, and 
although it is true that the needle is woman's great 
tyrant, it is likewise true that 

" No longer is wrought the gusset and band 
With ceaseless stitch and wearied hand, 
For sewing is pleasure by magic art, 
Since curious machines well play their part.'' 

We can scarcely imagine ourselves surround- 
ed by the scenes so familiar to our fathers, much 
less could we content ourselves to live as they 



14 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

lived. In those days our fathers were compelled 
to go many weary miles to the grist mill, the 
church, the physician. Pastors then had charges 
comprising a number of small congregations, scat- 
tered many leagues. It was seldom that either a 
physician or a minister could be seen at the bed- 
side of the suffering. 

In those days the average length of life was 
less than now. Small pox was the great scourge 
both in England and America. Great marshes 
along rivers and creeks caused intermittent fevers 
which carried off large numbers of the inhabi- 
tants. The death rate in England in the middle 
of last century was as much as one in every 
twenty four hours. In 1780 one Englishman died 
in every forty of the population. In 1800 the 
death rate had fallen to one in forty-eight. As the 
century wore on the improvements continued ; 
and in 1820 the death rate was one in fifty-seven.* 
In 1880 the death rate had fallen to eighteen and 
five tenth per thousand in the rural districts, but it 
was twenty and five tenth per thousand for the 
whole of England. In 1S00 the deaths in London 
exceeded the births, and the growth of the popu- 
lation depended on immigration from the provinces. 
In 1810 these conditions were reversed. Whilst 
the streets of our cities, which were then in their 
infancy, were not as filthy as those of the Old 



*The 19th Century, Makenzie. 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 1 5 

world, the people suffered from the inconveniences 
and discomforts of poor clothing, badly built 
houses and improper food. The death rates in 
those years were not as high as in England, but 
they were much higher than now. In 1880 the 
rate in the United States was " not less than seven- 
teen, nor greater than nineteen per thousand."* 
Our means for preventing and arresting disease 
are better beyond all comparison now than they 
were one hundred, or even fifty years ago. 

Hospitals have been in existence in Europe 
from the early Christian ages, but were not intro- 
duced in this country until 1752. Dispensaries 
were unknown in this country before 1786. An- 
esthetics were not used until after the first quarter 
of the nineteenth century. Ether as an anesthetic 
was first employed by Dr. Morton in Massachu- 
setts hospital, Boston, on Oct. 16th, 1846. 

The early part of this century had no rail- 
roads, no telegraphs, no steamboats. Towards 
the close of the 18th century, Lord Campbell ac- 
complished the journey from Edinburg to London 
in three days and three nights. But judicious 
friends warned him of the danger of this enter- 
prise, and told him that several persons, who had 
been so rash as to attempt it, had actually died 
from the mere rapidity of the motion."f 



* Compend of loth Census. 

f Makenzie's History of the loth Century, | 



l6 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

Poor people traveled on foot, and traveled as 
little as possible. The rich traveled on horseback, 
or on lumbering coaches, which jolted and jumped 
the passengers from side to side, and from front to 
rear, when the vehicle was not too well filled for 
such delightful exercise. Messages were sent by 
men on horseback and, now and then, by carrier 
pigeons, under favorable circumstances. When 
the battle of Waterloo was fought, in 1815, it 
required three days before the news could be 
known in London. The first use of a locomotive 
in this country was in 1829, by the Delaware and 
Hudson Railroad Company.* 

Such, in brief, was the condition of things in 
our land and in the world, before and at the open- 
ing of the present century. Our fathers lacked 
some of the comforts and conveniences of their 
friends across the waters ; but taking all in all, 
their condition was little worse than that of their 
friends in the mother country. For whatever 
privations they suffered, whatever self-denials they 
endured, they were amply repaid by the conscious- 
ness (if that consciousness they had) that they 
were laying the foundation for the happiest repub- 
lic in the grandest country upon which God's sun 
ever shone. 



*Our first Century, p. 682. 



CHAPTER II. 

OUR GROWTH IN TERRITORY— OUR DEVELOPMENT OF 

NATURAL RESOURCES— OUR MANUFACTORIES AND 

GROWTH IN WEALTH. 

" They (the U. S.) might conquer both your islands and ours, and in 
process of time advance to the southern continent of America, and either sub- 
due their inhabitants, or carry them along with them, and in the end not leave 
a foot of that hemisphere in the possession of an European power." — Stor- 
mout to George III. 

One of the distinguishing characteristics of 
the United States among American nations, and 
colonies, is the rapid growth of her territory. 
When the independence of the thirteen American 
colonies was acknowledged by the mother country, 
on September third 1783, the Mississippi river was 
our western boundary. The area of the United 
States then was 827,844 square miles. 

From that time to the present our country 
has grown, until it extends from the Atlantic to 
the Pacific, a distance of nearly 2800 miles, and 
from the St. Lawrence and the Lakes to the Gulf 
of Mexico, a distance more than half as great as 
that of the width of all Europe, from Cape North 
to Cape Matapan. 

Our present area, independent of Alaska, is 
3,026,494 square miles. The area of all Europe, 
independent of its islands, is only 3,608,750 
square miles. The area of its islands is about 
256,560 square miles. Take away the territory of 



1 8 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

Russia and our area is greater than all remaining 
Europe. Some of our states would make whole 
European kingdoms, others would make several 
kingdoms. We have eighteen states, each the 
size of Spain ; thirty-one, each as large as Italy. 
Texas would make more than nine kingdoms the 
size of Switzerland. It is one and nearly half 
times as large as Spain, and larger than all France. 
California would make eight kingdoms the size of 
Greece. Place England, Scotland, Ireland, and 
Wales ; Austria, Germany, France, Italy and 
Spain in America, and they would not much more 
than cover our territory east of the Mississippi 
river. Then think of Alaska with an area larger 
than all Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, 
Portugal and Holland combined, and you have 
some idea of the vast extent of our territory. 
How vast our territory, how rapid has been its 
growth ! Well may Gladstone say that we have 
" the greatest continuous empire ever established 
by man." Well could Dr. Franklin speak of the 
thirteen original colonies as " the infant Hercules," 
and say after the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, he 
a has now strangled the two serpents that attacked 
him in his cradle." 

When once these vast acres are all occupied 
with busy life, how great will be our responsibili- 
ties before God, how perilous our position, if we 
prove untrue to our opportunities now ! 

But this country, so great in area, is likewise 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 19 

great in natural resources. East of the Rocky 
mountains we have a river bank of more than 80,- 
000 miles ; whilst Europe in a larger space has 
only one and a third times as much. The Great 
Father of Waters, in connection with the Missouri, 
is the largest river in the world, with perhaps the 
Nile as an exception. It is estimated that the 
Mississippi with its affluents affords 15,000 miles 
of navigation. Our great lakes afford an outlet 
for the commerce of our Northern states and form 
a natural separation trom our neighbor. They 
contain the largest body of fresh water on the 
globe. It must likewise be borne in mind, that 
there is no country which possesses such an 
almost inexhaustible fertility as ours. Especially 
is this true of the states in the great Mississippi 
valley. The area of land in the United States 
which can not be farmed is small indeed, in pro- 
portion to the whole extent of our country. The 
Great American desert is almost a thing of the 
past. All the "bad lands " so called, of the great 
West are much less in extent and badness than 
was once supposed. A Texan, speaking of the 
Staked Plain, says : " Whilst it is true that this 
vast territory, which we are describing, is mainly 
a grazing country, it is also true, that it abounds 
in fertile valleys and rich locations of large extent, 
which arc as well watered as any in the nation." * :: " 



*"Our Country," p. 1 8. 



20 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

God, in His providence, made it impossible 
for the Pilgrim fathers either to know the fertility 
of the West, or to settle there, else the New Eng- 
land states would contain few farmers to this day. 
But if the fertility of our soil is proverbial, so is 
the variety in climate and consequent products. 

In our country we can have a fac-simile of 
the vine clad hills of France, the citron groves of 
Sicily and Italy and the orange orchards of the 
Mediterranean. " About 650 vessels leave the 
Mediterranean annually for this country loaded 
with figs, lemons, oranges, limes, almonds and the 
products of the vine. Time will show that Cali- 
fornia can easily produce all the products of an 
equal quality and in abundance sufficient to supply 
the whole country, and still have a surplus for our 
own consumption."* This was spoken nineteen 
years ago. Already is the prophecy fulfilled. The 
value of the grape crop of California in 1858 was 
$1,000,000. In 1887 it was more than $12,000,000. 
The wine product of that State in 1880 consisted 
of thirteen and one half million gallons valued at 
$4,047,000. Already California grapes are to be 
seen in all the markets of the United States the 
year around. The value of the fruit products of 
the United States, though great, can not be com- 
pared with the value of her cereal products. 
Dantzic and Odessa have ceased to be the great 



* Eighty Vears' Progress, p. 83. 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 21 

wheat depots of the world. More grain is now 
received in the cities of Omaha and Chicago than 
in the two combined cities first mentioned. Let 
us glance at the enormous increase in our pro- 
ducts. In 1849 there were raised in the United 
States 100,480,944 bushels of wheat. In 1859 the 
amount was 173,104,924 bushels, an increase in 
ten years of 72,000,000 bushels. In 1882 the 
wheat crop reached the enormous amount of 504,- 
185,470 bushels, the value of which was $444,602,- 
125. That is, the number of bushels in 1882 was 
nearly three times as great as it was twenty-three 
years before, and the crop was worth one hundred 
millions of dollars more ! This is an enormous 
amount of money. It is more than five times as 
much as was the public debt in 1791, and about 
one third as much as was that debt in 1883. 
Reckoning one hundred silver dollars to the foot, 
that amount would make a rod of silver eight 
hundred and forty-two miles long. If the farmers 
had observed the Mosaic rule of tithes for the 
year 1882, they would have given to the kingdom 
of Christ $44,460,212, or more than half as much 
as the total value ot all church property in the 
United States in 1850. 

But not only has the wheat product of our 
land increased so marvelously. We notice a cor- 
responding increase in other cereals. In 1859 our 
corn crop amounted to 838,792,742 bushels. In 
1882 it had reached the enormous amount ol 



22 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

1,617,025,100 bushels. The total value of the 
wheat, potatoes, hay and corn crop for 1882 was 
put down at $1,693,732,302. This amount would 
have paid our public debt within less than $200,- 
000,000 and nearly five times as much as the value 
of all church property. Had one tenth of this 
amount been consecrated to missions, it would 
have amounted to more than has been expended 
by the Protestant churches of America for Foreign 
Missions since we are a nation. 

Let us take a glance at the rapid development 
of our mineral wealth, a source of wealth which 
is practically inexhaustible. Iron ore is found in 
every state in the Union. The iron ore of Oregon 
is as good as any in the world, without exception. 
The deposits in Utah and Wyoming are simply 
immense. It is estimated that Iron Mountain and 
Pilot Knob contain one billion and a half of tons. 
Coal is found in every state and territory west of 
the Mississippi with the exception of Minnesota. 
The iron mines of some of the states east of the 
Mississippi are practically inexhaustible. Lead is 
found in all the states west of the Father of 
Waters, with the exception of Minnesota, Nebras- 
ka and Indian territory. Sulphur is abundant. 
Nevada is said to contain borax enough to supply 
the world for ages. The Philadelphia coal fields, 
by which we mean those principally along the 
Philadelphia and Reading rail road, were discov- 
ered as iuel in 1820. From that time to 1840, a 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 23 

period of twenty-one years, 6,847,179 tons were 
delivered. From 1850 to i860, a period of nine 
years, 5^,742,000 tons were delivered. In 1870 
the Pennsylvania mines produced 15,648,437 tons 
of anthracite, and in 1881, 28,500,016 tons, or 
nearly 14,000,000 tons more than ten years before, 
notwithstanding the fact that the West produced 
more than 11,000,000 tons bituminous more this 
year than the year first mentioned. The total 
amount of coal produced in 1881 in the United 
States of America was 77,326,934 tons. The av- 
erage yearly product of all Europe combined was 
computed by Reden in i860 to have been 172,- 
500,000. This estimate includes coal and brown 
coal. The coal mines of the United States are 
just being fully opened, whilst those of Europe 
are rapidly being exhausted. To impress us still 
farther with our mineral wealth, let us take a 
hasty glance at the iron produce. In 1867 we ex- 
ported 628 tons of pig iron and retained lor home 
use 1,317,177 tons of 2,240 pounds each. Much 
of this was manufactured from imported ore. In 
the same year we produced iron rail road bars 
410,319 tons, steel bars 2,277 tons. In 1882 we 
exported 9,519 tons pig iron and retained for home 
consumption 4,630,780 tons. In the same year we 
exported 4,190 tons rail road bars and retained for 
home consumption 1,937,994 tons. It will be seen 
that the increase is enormous, in fact unparalleled 
in the history of any nation. The number of es- 



24 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

tablishments in this department of our industries 
had increased from 1870 to 1880 as follows : estab- 
lishments 24.38 per cent, the amount of capital 
89.68 per cent, the value of materials used 41.13 
per cent, and the weight of all the products 98.76 
per cent, and the wages 36.93 per cent. 

Let us look at the increase in the gold pro- 
duced : " From the discovery of gold to June 30th, 
i88i ? California produced $1,170,000,000 of that 
metal. The annual product now is Irom eighteen 
to twenty millions. From 1863 to 1880 Idaho pro- 
duced $90,000,000 ot gold and silver, and Montana 
from 1861 to 1879 not l ess than $162,000,000.* 
"For the year ending May 31st, 1880, the United 
States produced 55 tons 724 pounds (avoirpupois) 
of gold, and 1,090 tons 398 pounds silver. These 
huge figures may be better grasped, perhaps, by 
considering the gold represents five ordinary car- 
loads, while a train of 109 freight cars of the usual 
capacity would be required to transport the silver. 
The present annual product (of silver) of the 
United States would suffice to form the full cargo 
of a large modern vessel."f The mineral wealth 
of the United States is sufficient to supply the de- 
mand of our own country not only, but of the 
whole world. We may obtain some idea of the 
rapid development of our country when we con- 



* Our Country, p. 24-25. 

f Comp. of 10th Census, p. 1229. 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 25 

sider that in 1770 our exports amounted to a little 
over £2,852,411. At that time our exports con- 
sisted of salt pork, Indian corn, peas, rice and 
tobacco. In 1784 our exports to Great Britain 
alone amounted to £743,345 and our imports from 
that country were £3,670,467. The imports from 
Great Britain during the first two years after the 
Revolution were about $30,000,000, that is, about 
ten dollars per capita of the inhabitants. From 
1810 to 1820 our imports decreased rapidly, so 
that they were $11,000,000 less in the year 1820 
than they had been in 1810. During the same 
time our exports increased over $3,000,000. In 
1881 our exports reached the unprecedented 
amount of $902,377,346, an increase over the year 
previous of over $66,738,688. The increase of 
exports in 1881 over those of 187 1 was $374,- 
059,476, a sum equal to more than one and a half 
times the value of all public school property 
in 1880. 

The total annual value of European commerce 
was estimated by Kolb in 1871 at $7,960,000; but 
he calls attention to the fact that many of those 
goods are counted imports in one country that are 
reckoned exports in another and transit trade in 
a third. This would make the commerce of Eu- 
rope less than one half the above amount. The 
specie value of the exports of the United States 
increased $455,000,000 in ten years. 

From a consideration of these facts we are led 
3 



26 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

to expect great progress in the benevolence of our 
people if theirs be the rule of the apostle, to give 
as the Lord has prospered them. 

But these are not the only signs of prosperity. 
The gain in the manufacturing interests of every 
description is, in nearly all instances, marvelous. 
Let us hastily consider a few of these. 

The manufacture of silk and silken goods is 
assuming gigantic proportions in this country. 
The silk culture began with the first colonies in 
this country. Georgia is said to have produced 
$75,000 of raw silk as early as 1753. But notwith- 
standing this early beginning the quantity of silk 
made in the United States in 1840 amounted to 
only $250,000. The census returns for 1880 show 
that the number of establishments has risen from 
eighty-six in number to three hundred and eighty- 
three. The number of hands increased from 
6,649 to over 30,000, and the value of all products 
from over $12,200,000 to $34,519,723. 

Look at the growth of the manufacture of cotton 
goods. Cotton cloth has been used for the manu- 
facture of clothing from the earliest times. The 
United States ever since her birth as a nation has 
held the keys which unlocked the vast store-houses 
of wealth from this source In 1780 her cotton 
exports amounted to $42,285 ; in 1803 to $7,920,- 
000; in 1831, to $31,724,682. In 1880 the crop 
amounted to 5,746,414 bales. The number of es- 
tablishments in the manufacture of cotton goods 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 27 

is 756, representing a capital of $208,280,346. The 
value of the cotton consumed was $86,945,- 
725 and the value of the products $192,080,110. 
This does not represent the full value of cotton 
goods manufactured. The large amount of cotton 
used in those mills which employ woolen and cot- 
ton both, in the manufacture of goods, is put down 
at $2,338,385. 

As our country becomes more populous the 
cotton culture will increase. There are thousands 
of acres now covered by the waters of the Miss- 
issippi which will in time to come largely increase 
the cotton produce of our land. 

Think tod of the great woolen industries of 
our land which represent a capital of nearly $100,- 
000,000, and consume more than that many dollars' 
worth of materials annually. 

Think of the number of our manufacturing 
industries in agricultural implements, boots and 
shoes, brick and tile, carpets, chemical products, 
felt goods, flouring and grist mills, glass, hosiery 
and knit goods, leathers, lumber, paper, petroleum 
and everything in the whole vast catalogue of our 
wants, our comforts and our luxuries. All of these 
have united in swelling the wealth of our land to 
the enormous amount of $43,642,000,000, in 1880. 

The number of miles of railroad in use in- 
creased more rapidly in our land than in any other 
under the sun. In 1830 we had only twenty-throe 
miles of railroad in operation. In 1835 we had 



28 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

1,098; in 1845,4,633; in 1855, 18,3/4; ^1874, 
72,623, and in 1882, 114,930 miles. From 1S65 to 
1SS2 the number of miles have been more than 
tripled. The length of railways in the principal 
countries of Europe in 1S72 was only 52,424 miles. 
At that time we had 66,171 miles. It is the rail- 
road above all else which has brought inland cities 
and towns together and has opened vast tracts of 
land for the plow or the miner's pick All of these 
miles of railroad mean an increase in production 
and consequent wealth. 

Let us take a glance at the marvelous and un- 
paralleled increase in our wealth. In 1850 the 
true* value of all property in our land was esti- 
mated at a little over seven billion dollars. In 
i860 it has risen to over sixteen billion dollars. 
That is, it had more than doubled. In 1S70 it had 
risen to over thirty billions. That is, it had again 
almost doubled, notwithstanding that in the inter- 
vening ten years one of the most awful wars had 
begun and ended — a war which cost our land 
billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of 
precious lives. The wealth of our nation since 
1870 has steadily increased until the present, when 
it is not less than fifty-five billions of dollars, a sum 
so vast that it is almost beyond our comprehension. 

The secret of the rapid development of our 
country's resources lies in the marvelous progress 



In distinction from assessed. 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 29 

of the sciences and arts in our age, our glorious 
institutions of self-government and the rapid in- 
crease of our population. In all of these and far 
above them is the hand of Almighty God which 
has planned and guided the whole from the time 
that the u morning stars sang together and all the 
sons ot God shouted for joy." " He has not dealt 
so with any nation : and as for his judgments, we 
have not known them." Has not our Heavenly 
Father the right to expect great things from the 
nation He has so wonderfully blest ? 

But the hand of the Lord is still extended in 
benedictions over our land. The progress it will 
yet make before we chronicle the year of our Lord 
1900 may be more stupendous than that of the last 
two decades ; or yielding to the evil forces at work 
in our midst, it may fall like a statue from its ped- 
estal to lie forever a broken ruin on the shores of 
time. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE RAPID GROWTH OF THE CHURCH IN THE UNITED 

STATES IN COMPARISON WITH THE GROWTH 

OF POPULATION AND THE GROWTH OF THE 

CHURCH IN THE WORLD. 

"We live in a new and exceptional age. America is another name for 
opportunity. Our whole history appears like a last effort of the Divine Provi- 
dence in behalf of the human race." — Emerson. 

We come now to a consideration of the real 
subject of this little volume. Thus far we have 
simply seen the rapid development of our country's 
resources. We have seen how our Heavenly 
Father in the morning of creation laid the founda- 
tion of our country's greatness in her climate, her 
soil and her mineral wealth. But we must bear in 
mind, that South America and Central America, 
likewise possess splendid natural resources. These 
become more fully known as christian civilization 
advances. Granting that these countries do not 
possess such an inviting climate, so rich a soil, or 
such vast mineral wealth as the United States, it 
must nevertheless be admitted that they have not 
developed, comparatively speaking, as has our own 
loved land. 

The answer becomes easy, when we call to 
mind that the first settlers of our country were 
principally English and Germans. These nations 
have given the world ecclesiastical and civil liberty. 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 3 1 

In this country more than in any other did these 
glorious principles of liberty take root. Here they 
have grown and developed. We believe that in 
the Providence of God they will never be over- 
thrown, though they may be compelled to go 
through dark times. The development of our 
natural resources is owing to the precious influ- 
ences of the religion of Jesus Christ upon the lives 
of our forefathers in this land. Egypt, Rome and 
Greece, with all their boasted civilization, their 
culture, their science, and their arts, made no such 
progress in all their national life as has the United 
States of America in the last fifty years. We 
might as well speak of a glorious June day with its 
sweet blossoms, its carpet of green, and its songs 
of birds, without the light of the sun, as to speak 
of the wealth and civilization of our land without 
the religion of Jesus Christ. But there is a sphere 
of progress in our land which is peculiarly the 
sphere of religion. Into the development of this 
sphere we now enter. 

We will endeavor to determine, whether the 
increase of the church of Christ in our land is at 
all to be compared with our material growth. We 
cannot count our nation's heart-throbs, neither can 
we stand at the golden gates of the* New Jerusa- 
lem, and see whether the number of those kW whose 
robes are washed white in the blood oi the Lamb," 
is increasing with our wealth and our population. 
We have only the external signs of the supposed 



32 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

inward life from which to judge. Our increase in 
numbers, in wealth and benevolence is the basis 
upon which our comparison must rest. We can 
therefore do no better than study our religious 
statistics. Thus and thus only can we obtain a 
true idea of the power of Christianity in our na- 
tion. The Independent Almanac for 18S4 places 
the number of church edifices in the United States 
at 115,610: the number of ministers was com- 
puted to be 81,717 • and the number of communi- 
cants 17.267,878. From these statistics it is 
readily seen that more than 33 per cent of the 
inhabitants of our land profess to be members of 
the church of Jesus Christ. Of this number more 
than one third were Roman Catholics. They 
owned 6,241 churches. That is, out of every 
eighteen and one half of the church edifices in 
this country, one belongs to the Roman Catholics. 
The significance of this fact will be considered 

CD 

later. At the beginning of 1SS7 the number of 
churches had risen to 132,435, the number of min- 
isters to 91,911, and the communicants to 19,018,- 
977. In lour years the number of church edifices 
increased by one sixth of the total number of 
churches in 1S80. The number of christians, so 
called, in the world is estimated at 327,000,000.* 
The number of inhabitants in the world is said to 
be a billion and a half. According to this estima- 



History of all Relig 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 33 

tion, one in every five of the world's inhabitants 
belongs to the christian church. Even in the light 
of this estimation the religious growth of the 
United States outranks the nations of the earth ; 
but we must reckon in this the standard to be at- 
tained in different countries and churches in order 
to be reckoned among christians. 

According to the estimation just given every 
inhabitant of our nation is reckoned a Christian, 
because he lives under a christian government. 
On the other hand we have already seen that in 
our country only one in every three of the inhabi- 
tants is reckoned a member of the church of Jesus 
Christ. 

Again, in the Greek church every one who is 
baptized is called a Christian ; but missionaries tell 
us, that in the Greek church of Bulgaria, and in 
fact, throughout all her borders those who are 
Christians so called are as sadly in need of the 
Gospel as the Mohammedans, or any heathen who 
have never heard the name of Christ. Their the- 
ology is more orthodox than that of the Koran, 
but theology among the common people is a dead 
letter.' 55 ' The many years of Turkish rule have so 
debased the people that they know virtually noth- 
ing of Jesus Christ and him crucified. The stand- 
ard of admission to the christian church is as high 



* The improvements made by the reading of Rev. Mr. Spurgeon's ser- 
mons in the Greek churches by the native ministers Is to be hailed as one of 
the most favorable signs of the times in that land of Turkish misrule. 



34 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

in the United States as in any country under the 
sun. It must be admitted that different branches 
of the church of Christ in our country, show a 
vast difference in the efficiency of their work for 
the Master. The wealth and numbers of a de- 
nomination, we admit, are important factors to be 
considered ; but taking all in all, it can be shown 
that the christians of the Uuited States are not a 
whit behind the best in the world. 

The growth of the church compared with the 
growth of our population is worthy of our consid- 
eration. In 1775 we ^ad one ordained minister of 
the Gospel to every 1839 °f the inhabitants. We 
then had only 1918 congregations. In twenty-five 
years from that time we had one ordained minis- 
ter to every 2000 of the inhabitants. The num- 
ber of ministers, for some reason, was not as rapid 
in its increase as the population. At that time (in 
the year 1800) there was one communicant to 
every 1450 of our population. 

In 1850 our population had increased nearly 
18,000,000 over what it had been in 1800 and the 
number of communicant members of our church 
had been augmented by 3,165, 116. At that time 
there was one church to every 538 of the inhabi- 
tants. That is, in fifty years the number of 
churches had increased 40,042, and one in every 
6.57 of the population was a member of some 
christian church. Then there was one minister to 
every 907 of the inhabitants. At the last census 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 35 

there were " 97,090 churches, or congregations/' 
69,870 ordained ministers and 10,065,963 commun- 
icants, or one church member in every five of the 
inhabitants. From 1800 to 1880 the population 
increased 9.46 fold, the communicant church mem- 
bership 27.52 fold. 

What is most encouraging is, that the growth 
in the thoroughly evangelical denominations has 
been most rapid in the last few years. The growth 
of Universalism and Unitarianism is scarcely per- 
ceptible, whilst that of Methodism and Lutheran- 
ism is greater than Roman Catholicism. The 
number of Roman Catholic priests, however, has 
increased by one-fifth in four years, whilst the to- 
tal gain ot all ministers in that time was only one- 
eighth of the whole. The increase of Lutheran 
ministers was one-sixth of the whole, and that ol 
Methodist five-twenty-fourths. The standard for 
church membership has not in the least been low- 
ered. During the first quarter of this century, it 
is asserted, that church members, and even minis- 
ters themselves, were guilty of irregularities which 
to-day would drive them in disgrace from the fold. 
Neither has the efficiency of the church's work 
deteriorated, as we shall subsequently see from the 
results she has attained in these closing years of 
the nineteenth century. 

If we compare the growth of the church in 
our country with her growth in other lands, we 
find the same encouraging results. The number 



36 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

of Christians in the world in 1850, is said to have 
been 342,000,000. In 1880, as we have already 
seen, it was estimated at 410,900,000, an increase 
over 1850 of 68,900,000. In the same period of 
time the church of Christ, in our own land, in- 
creased 7,000,000 souls. That is, our increase was 
10.16 per cent of the whole, whilst our population 
was only about one-thirteenth of that of the globe. 
It must be borne in mind that our population is 
largely increased by immigration. From 187 1 to 
1880 our increase from that source was 2,944,695, 
an average of 327,188 per year. These and their 
children form to-day at least one-fifth of our total 
population.* It must be borne in mind, likewise, 
that those who come to us from foreign shores are 
not by any means the cream of society. In 1880 
the foreign born were only thirteen' per cent, of 
the population, but of the 59,255 in prisons, they 
furnished 12,917 of the number. At the same 
time, of the number of those trading or dealing in 
liquors and wines in our land, sixty-three per cent, 
were foreign born ; and of the brewers and 
malsters seventy-five per cent, claimed the same 
origin, J^y this we see how much more onerous 
the work of the church must be on account of 
these foreign vultures, which prey upon American 



* In the census of 1880 there were 6,499,784 of foreign birth. The 
number having one or both parents of foreign birth, together with all those of 
foreign birth reaches the enormous total of 14,955,996. We are pre-eminently 
a nation of foreigners. 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 37 

society. We have in our midst to-day, those who 
come from the mines of Siberia and from the dun- 
geons of every state in all Europe, and from the 
darkness of Asiatic and African heathendom. 
From among these come the most violent oppo- 
nents to the missionary in the far West and in our 
great cities. When once in a while one among 
these vast numbers is converted, he affords a most 
excellent illustration of the riches of grace, and 
the efficiency of prayer. We do not wish to make 
the impression that we believe, that all immigrants 
belong to this class. We are well aware, that not 
a few of the best citizens of our land are of for- 
eign birth, or foreign parentage. The whole truth 
must however be stated. 

When we consider our foreign population, we 
need not wonder at the slow growth of the church. 
On the other hand we have great reason for en- 
couragement and renewed effort to bring about 
that glorious day, when " the mountain of the 
Lord's house shall be established on the top of the 
mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, 
and all nations shall flow unto it."* 



* The following is a diagram showing the increase of church membership 
(or number of communicants) for different periods. 
1800 
1850 
1870 



1887 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE AMOUNT OF MONEY EXPENDED IN CHURCH ERECTION 

IN DIFFERENT PERIODS. IS SHOWN TO BE INCREASING 

WITH OUR WEALTH. THIS FACT HOWEVER CAN 

SCARCELY BE REGARDED MORE THAN A 

SIGN OF BENEVOLENCE. 

" Even so faith, if it has not works, is dead, in itself. Yea, a man will 
say, Thou hast faith, and I have works : show me thy faith apart from thy 
works, and I by my works will show thee my faith." — St. James. 

We come now to a consideration of the 
amount of money invested in church buildings, 
parsonages and other property in the possession of 
the different denominations of our great land. 
Our country has few cathedrals, which are re- 
nowned for their architecture, their grand old 
paintings or their costly statuary. As a rule, the 
amount of money spent in the erection of church 
buildings in our land is well invested. It is money 
received largely from the poor and is invested 
with the desire of bringing souls to Christ. Whilst 
we cannot point to grand edifices where kings and 
popes have been crowned, we do have temples 
in which thousands of souls have been sealed for 
Christ. Whilst few of our houses of worship are 
historical here, many of them have a history 
above, recorded with a pen of fire, in the Lamb's 
book of life, where the record never grows old, 
and where no human hand can erase or deface. 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 39 

Most of our church buildings are characteristic of 
the nation's government, " they are by the people, 
of the people, and for the people." Let us con- 
sider the growth in value of the property of the 
different denominations. Our lathers worshiped 
in log churches, which served them as forts as 
well as houses of worship. They were compelled 
to " watch and pray." The prayers offered in the 
log churches of our pious fathers had as much 
power in accomplishing the freedom of this nation 
as their rifle balls. The growth in value of church 
property in this country is in keeping with our 
growth in riches, to a certain extent, at least, as 
will be best seen by the following comparisons. 
In 1850 the 38,061 churches of our land were 
valued at $87,328,801. The average cost of each 
church edifice was a little less than 2,300. Ten 
years afterwards we had 54,009 churches, and the 
value of church property was put down $171,- 
397,932. The average value of each church 
building was $3,118, an increase of $818 per edi- 
fice, whilst the amount invested in church property 
was within a little over $3,000,000 of twice as 
much as it had been ten years before. The true* 
value of property in the United States had a little 
more than doubled. In 1870 the number 01 
church buildings was 63,082 and the value of 
church property was $354,483,581. The average 



* Distinguished from the assessed value. 



40 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

value of each edifice was $5,619, an increase of 
$2,501 over that of the ten years previous, and 
more than twice as much as in 1850. The true 
value of property in the United States was not 
quite twice as much as in i860 ; but the value of 
church property had more than doubled, notwith- 
standing the fact that taxation had enormously in- 
creased. In 1880 the number of church edifices 
had nearly doubled, and the value of church proper- 
ty* was more than twice what it had been ten years 
previous. The true value of property was a little 
more than one and a half times what it had been 
in 1870. It may be of interest to note that the 
Methodists, the Lutherans, and the German Re- 
formed have been more than doubling the value of 
their church property, every ten years, since 1850. 
It is worthy of our serious consideration, that the 
Roman Catholics in 1850 owned nearly one tenth 
of all the church property, according to worth, in 
our land. In i860 Roman Catholic church prop- 
erty was valued at 26,774,119, or nearly one-sixth 
of the whole, and in 1870 it was more than one- 
sixth of the whole. The number of Roman 
Catholic church edifices had more than doubled 
from 1850 to i860. From 1870 to 1888 the in- 
crease was nearly 188 per cent, more than at the 



* It should be borne in mind that the average value of each church edi- 
fice is much less in all the above comparisons, inasmuch as the reported value 
of church property includes parsonages, grounds and even Sunday School 
libraries. This fact does not affect the truth we seek to demonstrate. 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 4 1 

close of 1870. The progress in the increased 
value of church property can best be seen by the 
diagram. 45 " 

We must bear in mind that America has no 
established church. Her liberality is spontaneous. 
England has about 30,000 places of worship. She 
has a population not more than half as large as was 
ours in 1880; but we had three and one-half 
times as many churches capable of seating the 
whole English population. The churches of Eng- 
land depend largely for their support upon the 
state. This is true of all " established " European 
churches. Remembering these facts, we are safe 
in asserting that American churches are not a whit 
behind the old, wealthy churches of Europe in 
their liberality. On the contrary it is plain that 
they are far in advance. 

It may be interesting to compare the increase 
in manufactories with the increase in churches in 



* Value of churches in 
1850 

i860 

1870 



Diagram showing the true value of property in U. S. at different periods. 

1850 

i860 



1870 



1880 

The two tables are not on the same scale, as will be seen at a glance, but 
the comparative length of the lines in each table shows the ratio of increase. 



42 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

our land. In 1850 the United States had 123,025 
manufacturing establishments. In i860 the num- 
ber had risen to 140,433. That is, the number of 
establishments increased 17,408. But we have 
already seen that the number of churches in the 
same period increased only 16,000. This, when 
compared with the increase during the years prev- 
ious was exceedingly rapid. In 1850 the number 
of manufactories was three and one-fourth times 
as great as the number of churches ; but in i860 
it had fallen to less than two and one-half times as 
many. In 1870 the number of manufactories in- 
creased to four times that of the number of 
churches. In 1880, although the increase in the 
number of churches had been rapid, the multipli- 
cation ot lactones was equally great. From 1850 
to i860 the true value of property in the United 
States increased nearly $9,000,000,000 and the value 
of church property, $94,000,000. From i860 to 
1870 the true value of property had increased a 
little more than $14,000,000,000, or, in other words, 
the increase was one and five-ninth times what it 
had been from 1850 to i860 ; but church prop- 
erty in that time increased $183,000,000 in val- 
ue, or a little less than twice what it had been- 
in i860. From 1870 to 1880 property increased 
$13,500,000,000 in round numbers. That is, the in- 
crease was a little less than in the ten years previ- 
ous, whilst the increase in the value of church 
property was much more than it had been in the 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 43 

ten years before. This rapid increase in the value 
of church property was not owing merely to the 
rapid development of real estate in our land, but 
more particularly to the vast increase in the num- 
ber of church edifices. Notwithstanding the rapid 
increase in our population the number of inhabi- 
tants to the number of churches has constantly 
decreased. 

In 1850 there was one church to every 609 inhabitants. 

In i860 " " " 580 

In 1870 " " " 563 

In 1880 " " " 517 « 

In 1886 " " " 415 

Reckoning the population of U. S. at 55,000,- 
000, these closing years of this decade are marked 
years of national prosperity and banner years in 
church building. 

Our immigration at present is largely to the 
great West, where church accommodations are 
few. The East is the source principally from 
whence come the funds to erect churches in our 
newer states. All this must be borne in mind 
when we think of the work of the church in our 
great land. One fact which may not be as cheer- 
ing as those, which we have just considered, dare 
not be overlooked in this connection. Whilst it is 
encouraging to think that so abundant is the pro- 
vision of the church in this country, that there is 
one house of worship to every 500 inhabitants, it is 
likewise true, that the church accommodation in 
many, if not all our large cities, is far from what it 



44 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

should be. Take New York, for example. In 1830 
there was one church to every 1858 of the popula- 
tion. Then the city contained less than one quarter 
of a million of people. In 1850 there was one 
church to every 2,095 oi the inhabitants. The 
population was more than half a million. In 1880, 
when the population was more than a million, 
there were only 489 churches, or one to every 
2,468 of the inhabitants. In fifty years the Roman 
Catholics built fifty-two churches, The Presby- 
terians, of every school, for the same period, built 
fifty-four. Of all Protestant Evangelical denomi- 
nations there was an increase of 297 for the same 
period.* There is nothing in this over which we 
are to feel especially discouraged. It simply shows 
that the church accommodations in that great city 
were not what they should have been in 1830 
already, and that they are a little worse now. If 
New York would spend as much money for her 
churches as she does for her amusements, or in her 
beer saloons, she would have abundant church ac- 
commodation, and what is more, she could 
discharge half her police force, which to-day costs 
her more than $4,000,000 annually. 

In London things are worse than in our own 
Metropolis. In 1884 the population of London 
was estimated at 4,019,361. There was room for 
less than one-fourth of her people in her churches 



* 58th Annual of N. Y. City Mission or Tract Soc, 1885. 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 45 

and her mission halls. We are informed that the 
number of churches in proportion to the inhabi- 
tants is larger now than it was thirty years ago. 
One fact, however, must be deprecated. It is, that 
people in that city seem to care less about church- 
going than they once did.' 55 ' When once the habit 
of church-going declines, then the number of 
church edifices annually erected will be decidedly 
diminished and all the benevolent contributions of 
the members become correspondingly less. Then 
the faith of the church, which after all is the main 
spring of action, will decay, and the piety of the peo- 
ple go into a hopeless decline. From such a state 
of affairs, good Lord deliver us, we humbly pray. 

Whilst the number of churches that are annu- 
ally erected in this country is one of the hopeful 
signs that our benevolence as denominations is not 
decreasing, it is not the only sign. There are other 
and perhaps more striking evidences. Some of 
these we will briefly examine. In fact the money 
we spend for the erection of churches for our own 
accommodation, can hardly be reckoned a benevo- 
lent contribution. It so manifestly ministers to our 
own comfort and convenience. It must be ad- 
mitted, however, that those who give nothing for 
the support of the church at home, give nothing 
for her support abroad. Church erection, there- 
fore is, to say the least, a sign that benevolence is 
not dead. 



* British Quart. 1885, 



CHAPTER V. 

THE WORK OF THE CHURCH OF TO-DAY OF OUR COUNTRY 

IN FOREIGN AND HOME MISSIONS CONTRASTED WITH 

HER WORK IN EARLY YEARS. WHAT SHE MUST 

ACCOMPLISH TO BE TRUE TO HER 

OPPORTUNITIES. 

" Watchman ! tell us of the night : 

Higher yet that star ascends. 

Trav'ler ! blessedness and light, 

Peace and truth its course portends. 
Watchman ! will its beams alone 

Gild the spot that gave them birth ? 
Trav'ler, ages are its own ; 

See ! it bursts o'er all the earth !" 

— Bowring. 

Almost synchronous with the beginning of the 
history of our nation is the beginning of the his- 
tory of modern missions. At the opening of the 
present century there were what to human view 
seemed insurmountable difficulties for the mission- 
ary of the cross. Fifty years ago the great African 
continent was ierra incognita. Only the coast 
was outlined on the maps of our school-boy days. 
Little or nothiug was known of its great lakes, its 
mighty rivers, and its vast areas of fertile soih 
The islands of the seas were filled with cannibals, 
whom the poor ship-wrecked mariner had reason 
to dread more than the waves of old ocean. India, 
which in these latter days has given such abundant 
proof of the power of God in modern missions, 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 47 

was, at the opening history of our nation, untrod- 
den by the heralds of the Prince of peace. Chinn, 
in more than one sense, was a walled kingdom. 
The ports of Japan were closed against all foreign 
powers. In countries under the sway of the scep- 
ter of the False Prophet all freedom of speech 
and thought were denied on pain of death. Cru- 
elties were practiced by those in power, which 
to-day are no longer thought of. In the church 
herself a lethargy, which was begotten of ignor- 
ance and infidelity, reigned supreme. It is true, 
there were some who thought of the commands 
and the promises of God, but the number was 
small and the prejudice against them not to be 
conquered. Carey, at the close of the last century, 
when fired with zeal for the souls of his brethren 
in India, was advised to "sit down," and leave the 
salvation of a lost world to the Almighty. When 
the application for a charter for the American 
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was 
before the legislature of Massachusetts, Mr. 
Crownshield arose to object, because he thought it 
" would export religion, whereas there was none 
to spare." Foreign Missions were considered an 
utter waste of human life and money. Since that 
time the world has witnessed marvelous changes. 
Let us compare the past with the present. 

At the beginning of the present century there 
were a few scattered missions in Ceylon and the 
Moluccas. Amid the eternal snows and iees of 



48 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

the far North such men as Hans Egede and the 
early Moravian missionaries did heroic work. In 
our own land the pious Eliot amid many discour- 
agements did heroic service among the Indians. 
The first Bible printed in America was that which 
he translated for the aborigines. Eliot was not the 
first to preach to the red man the unsearchable 
riches of the Gospel. Thomas Mayhew was be- 
fore him. In some districts of East India, the 
Halle-Danish missions had blessed prospects, 
which in that thoroughly rationalistic age were 
never realized. All told, there were but seven 
Protestant missionary societies when the nine- 
teenth century began. Four of these dated their 
beginning within the last ten years of the eight- 
eenth century. They were the Baptist, London, 
and church missionary societies and the Dutch 
society of Rotterdam. There were none in Amer- 
ica. In Europe and America alone there are 
now upwards of one hundred. The number in 
Great Britain is about thirty ; in America twenty- 
eight were reported in 1858.* To all of these 
belong many auxiliary societies. Besides all these 
there are many independent societies in the colon- 
ies of Great Britain. And yet besides these there 
are many societies in the islands of the sea, where 
a hundred years ago the religion of Christ was un- 
known. I refer to Madagascar, Hawaiia, Ponape, 



Warnech's Algemeine Miss. Zeitschrift. 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 49 

and the Caroline Archipelago. At the beginning 
of this century the whole number of missionaries 
employed in the foreign field was one hundred and 
seventy. To-day the number is no less than 3,035 
ordained European and American missionaries of 
the cross in all foreign lands. 

The results of the labor of these faithful 
workers is grand, almost beyond comprehension. 
There are supposed to be about 1,000,000 adult 
converts among the heathen in communion with 
the church of Christ. These with their families 
swell the number to at least 3,000,000. Of these 
converts 3,000 are ordained ministers, placed over 
native congregations ; 2,700 are evangelists among 
their own people. Add to these the voluntary 
private workers in families and Sunday Schools, 
and we have some idea of the power of the gospel 
in foreign lands. 

But it is in the missionary work carried on by 
the United States that we are especially interested. 
Here missionary work differs essentially from 
missionary efforts on the continent of Europe. 
Missionary work is carried on in America by the 
churches themselves, as a part of the regular 
church work. In the national churches of Europe 
the work is left to voluntary soc eties. In 1885 the 
American Foreign Missionary societies had 435 
stations, 663 missionaries and 3,865 helpers. In 
1875 we had 346 stations and 536 missionaries. 
That is, in ten years the increase in stations under 



50 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

the jurisdiction of the churches of the United 
States was larger than the sum total of all mission- 
ary stations in foreign lands at the opening of the 
present century ; and the increase in missionaries 
was nearly as large as the sum total of all mission- 
aries at the close of last century. In 1885 these 
twenty-eight societies expended $2,042,550.96, an 
increase over 1875 °f $354^77*44** The A. B. C. 
Foreign Miss. Society, at its last annual meeting, 
reported that she had sent out 434 American labor- 
ers, which was more than twice as many as were 
out in all the mission fields of the world at the 
close of the eighteenth century. According to Dr. 
Warneck the missionaries from Great Britain out- 
numbered those from America by 906, or in other 
words, there were more than twice as many mis- 
sionaries in foreign fields from that country as 
from America. The income of the British socie- 
ties was $250,000 less than twice as much as that 
from all European societies combined. In 1878-9 
the private gifts and legacies to foreign missions by 
Americans was upwards of one and a half million 
dollars. Within the las: twenty years our foreign 
missionary work has received a new and most fav- 
orable impulse in u Woman's work for Woman." 
In the providence of God the homes of India have 
been opened to women missionaries. One of the 
first, if not the very first, of these societies was 



* Prof. Starbuck in Andover Review, Oct. 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 51 

The New England Women's For. Miss. Society. 
About ten months after this society had its birth, 
" The Women's Board of Missions for the In- 
terior" sprang into being. During its first year it 
gathered $4,096.77. Since that time the number 
of Women's Missionary societies has increased so 
rapidly that at the present writing there are no less 
than thirty, with an aggregate income of more 
than one and a quarter million dollars annually. 
These boards have hundreds of auxiliary societies. 
The good done in foreign lands by the women of 
America can be estimated only by Him who sit- 
teth on the throne. We are well aware that the 
amount given by the churches of America is not 
what it should be. It is in increased contributions we 
rejoice. In 1883 the contributions to Foreign mis- 
sions from all protestants was $10,000,000, or, .075 
cents per member. She sent only one out of every 
22,500 of her members into the foreign field, and dis- 
tributed 6,000,000 copies of parts or entire copies of 
the Word of God.* This taken all in all is little 
indeed ; but it must be remembered that the church 
is just awakening to the great work of converting 
the nations to God. It is in the growth of her in- 
terest and contributions that we rejoice, because 
they augur favorably for the future. Never were 



* Horn. Review, Jan. '86. 

In '85-'86 the whole foreign missionary income was $10,297,238 and the 
whole cost of administration £830,000. The increase in the income was 98 

per cent. The year's increase in native workers was [,890 and the increase in 
communicants was 148,134 souls. 



52 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

there so many who expressed a willingness to for- 
sake houses and lands and kindred, so that they 
might carry the Gospel to the heathen, as in our 
day. It was stated at the International Missionary 
Union, held at Thousand Island Park, New York, 
(Aug. 10-17, 1887) thrat there are no less than 2500 
young men and women in our institutions of learn- 
ing at the present time who are willing to share in 
the glorious work of carrying the Gospel to the 
heathen. 

If the churches ot America would arise as one 
man and say to these consecrated hearts, "Go 
forth, we will sustain you with our means and our 
prayers," who could compute the result of their 
united effort for the salvation of the world ! In 
1892 the world will celebrate the one-hundredth 
anniversary of modern missions, and the four- 
hundredth of the discovery of America by 
Christopher Columbus. Who knows what copious 
out-pourings of God's Spirit shall be witnessed 
before that event occurs ? Who knows what burn- 
ing words proclaiming both the wisdom and 
goodness of God, shall then be uttered by those 
who labor and pray for the conversion of the 
world ? 

But we must not forget that there is no 
country under the sun which has so great a Home 
Missionary field to cultivate as the Protestant 
churches of America, Not only have we thous- 
ands of Negroes and Indians, whom God has given 



PROBLEM OP OUR COUNTRY. 53 

us to break the bread of life unto, but we likewise 
have a large foreign population which has come 
to us from every clime, and which represents every 
stage of development and non-development in re- 
ligion and morals. In 1870 the total colored pop- 
ulation of our land was 4,880,009 and the Chinese 
population was 63,254. In 1881 alone the immi- 
gration of Chinese to this country was 20,711. In 
1880 there were 2,147.900 colored voters, whilst the 
total colored population had arisen to 6,580,793.* 
In the year 1881 the total immigration was 720,- 
045. In ten years (from 1871 to the close of 1881) 
the total immigration to our shores was 3,664,740 
souls. Not less than seventy-five per cent, of these 
vast numbers, which come to us from foreign 
shores, pour into our far West. The proportion 
of foreigners in the states beyond the Mississippi 
is more than twice as great as east of it. These 
people, as a rule, are poor and unable to build 
churches and schools and support pastors and 
teachers. Many of them are indifferent, if not 
averse to all religious influences. They come to 
our shores, not as did the Pilgrim fathers, to wor- 
ship God according to the dictates of their con- 
sciences, but they come to get a home, to gain 
riches and honor. The churches that are estab- 
lished among them are supported wholly, or in 
part by churches in the east. Let us compare the 



* This includes Indians, Negroes and Chinese. 



54 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

number of churches in some of our western states 
to the population. In 1870 Nebraska had a popu- 
lation of 122,993. She had 108 church buildings, 
or one church to every 1,138 of her inhabitants. 
In 1880 her population had nearly quadrupled and 
yet the number of inhabitants to the number of 
churches was less than in the former period. In 
Pennsylvania the number of church edifices to the 
number of inhabitants was as one to 621. That 
is, the number of churches in the two states was 
as one to tw T o nearly. In 1870, in Montana there 
was one church to every 1373. In 1880 the num- 
ber of churches was found to have kept pace with 
the rapid increase in inhabitants. In the entire Uni- 
ted States in 1870 there w r as one church to every 611 
of the inhabitants. In i860 there was one church 
to 582 ; and in 1850, one to every 609 of the in- 
habitants. Notwithstanding the fact that our 
population increased so rapidly from i860 to 1870, 
the ratio in the increase in churches kept pace. If 
we reckon our population at 55,000,000 at the 
close of 1886 the number of churches to the pop- 
ulation is as one to 415. We see by these last 
figures that although the increase in population in 
the last years is unparalleled, the churches have 
multiplied more rapidly still. This shows vast 
labor and self-denial on the part of the missionar- 
ies in out western states, and not a little of the 
spirit of true benevolence on the part of the 
churches. The amount of money expended in the 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 55 

United States by the different Home Missionary 
and Church Extension societies is several times 
that expended for Foreign Missions. For exam- 
ple, let us take a few denominations and compare 
the figures for the two great objects. The General- 
Synod Lutherans in two years ending with March 
31st, (1887) expended for Foreign Missions $71,- 
741.22. The amount expended for Home Mis- 
sions and church extension for the same period 
was $136,393.89. The Presbyterian church with 
847,000 communicants from April 1886 to April 
1887 expended $1,093,757 for Home Missions. 
Besides this amount she sent boxes of clothing, etc., 
to the Home missionaries, amounting to $46,000. 
In addition to all this she expended $103,000 for the 
religious instruction of the freedmen. For Foreign 
Missions during the same period she expended 
$669,891, or a little more than one half as much 
as for Home Missions. Nor are we forgetful of 
the spiritual wants of our Indians. There may 
have been a time when it was thought that the 
only policy to be pursued toward the Indian was 
extermination, but in the last few decades a differ- 
ent sentiment has become popular. Ever since 
the peace policy of President Grant gave the In- 
dian Agency into the hands of Christian denomi- 
nations a better dav has bcinm to dawn for the 

J o 

" Poor Indian." According to the judgment of 
the President of the United States Hoard of Indian 
Commissioners the total number of tribes in 1873 



56 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

was about 130. About 27,000 of these were full 
church members of various denominations, with 
117 congregations and 219 churches. About 2,000 
were partially or entirely civilized. Since that 
time a marvelous change has taken place. To-day 
more than 4,500 Indians can read and write, and 
this number is rapidly being increased by our in- 
dustrial schools in the east, and by missionaries in 
the west. The subjoined synopsis of the report 
of the superintendent of Indian schools gives us 
some idea of the status of the work by the govern- 
ment : " Mr. Riley states that the aggregate ex- 
penditure by the government for the education of 
Indian chilcren during the year was $1,095,379. 
The whole number of Indian children between the 
ages of six and sixteen years is 39,821; of this 
number, 14,932 attended school. Mr. Reily says 
that too much stress cannot be laid upon the im- 
portance of preparing native teachers, and to this 
end suggests that a normal school department be 
established at some of the larger schools. He also 
recommends that an industrial boarding-school be 
established near the Missouri River, adjacent to 
the Sioux reservation j that schools be provided 
for the tribes in Nevada ; that Congress be re- 
quested to provide for the education of 100 Indian 
children, to be selected from the tribes living in 
the State of New York ; and that a commission be 
appointed and empowered to make a thorough ex- 
amination of the whole subject ot Indian educa- 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 57 

tion."* The work done by the Hampton Institute 
among Indian and colored children is truly encour- 
aging. The following is a synopsis : 

" The enrollment for the laatt school year ^as : 
Officers, teachers, and industrial instructors, 65 ; 
colored students, 536 ; Indian students, 140. There 
are engaged in teaching 600 graduates and 250 
undergraduates, — these having charge of about 
45,000 colored children in the public schools of the 
South. The industries taught at Hampton include 
wood-working in many forms, black-smithing and 
iron working, farming, tailoring, dressmaking, 
printing, machine-knitting, saddlery, shoemaking, 
tinsmithing, brickmaking, wood carving, horticul- 
ture, and domestic work of all kinds." 

Those lines of Pope, 

" Lo ! the poor Indian, whose untutored mind 
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind, 
His soul proud science never taught to stray 
Far as the solar walk or milky-way," 

have lost their force in these closing years of the 
nineteenth century. 

The colored population is rapidly being sup- 
plied with churches and an educated ministry. 
The princely gift of $1,000,000 by Mr. Slater of 
Norwich, Conn., has moved others to give and 
labor for the furtherance of this great work among 
the freedmen. The missions of the churches of 



* Christian Herald, Nov. 3, '87. 
f Baltimore American, August, '87. 

5 



58 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

our country have a vast, but a glorious work. 
They have the privilege of dropping the seeds of 
truth into the hearts of people of every form and 
shade of heathenism. These going to their breth- 
ren in the realms of darkness may accomplish 
much for the conversion of the world. 

From the facts we have just considered it 
seems as if the churches of our land were awak- 
ening into a full consciousness of the measure of 
responsibility which God has placed upon them. 
But the benevolence of the churches of the 
United States, although second to none, must be 
largely increased if we are to meet the wants of 
the age and the country in which we live. The 
destinies of mankind for ages to come, hinge upon 
the work of the church of the present generation. 
She has, so it seems to us in our shortsightedness, 
the future of her children and of the nation in her 
own hands. God grant that she may come up to 
the full measure of her responsibilities. 






CHAPTER VI. 

DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST (CONTINUED.) 

THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. ITS ORIGIN, GROWTH IN NUMBERS 

AND INFLUENCE. THE A. S. S. UNION. S. S. LITERATURE. 

SOCIETIES OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. ORIGIN, RAP- 

ID GROWTH, WORK. THE Y. M. C. A. ORIGIN, GROWTH, 

AND AIM. "YOUNG CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION," 

"WHITE RIBBON ARMY," "WHITE CROSS 

ARMY," "BOYS' BRIGADE," "GOOD 

TEMPLARS," " BIBLE SOCIETIES." 

In 1425, with a view, probably, to diminish the influence of the Duke of 
Gloucester, (the Protector), Henry the VI, then a child only five years old, was 
brought into the House of Lords, and seated upon the throne, upon his moth- 
er's knee. "It was a strange sight," says Speed, " an infant sitting upon his 
mother's knee to exercise the place of sovereign direction in open Parliament." 
— Knight's England, II Vol. p. 78. 

Was not that child a type of childhood in our land ? It holds the destiny 
of this nation. How important, therefore, its training ! 

Our study on the Religious Problem of our 
times would be entirely incomplete, if we would 
not consider other branches of the church's activ- 
ity in addition to those already mentioned. Whilst 
the temptations in the path of youth are perhaps 
more numerous in our day than in any former 
period, the church of Christ is awake to her re- 
sponsibilities in regard to the young. She realizes 
as much as ever that as " the twig is bent, the 
tree's inclined." She has societies, unions and 
guilds innumerable, by which and in which she 
attempts to win the young for Christ. 

The Sunday School, of all institutions for the 



60 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

christian culture of the young, stands next to the 
home in power and influence. This is pre-emi- 
nently a modern institution. It is true, before the 
time of Christ the school was a part of every 
Jewish synagogue. The old Jewish rabbis said, 
" At five years of age let the child begin the 
Scriptures, at ten the Mishna, and at thirteen let it 
be subject to the law." A synagogue in a town 
presupposed a school, just as a church in our day 
implies a Sunday School. In the early Christian 
church, in imitation of the Jewish schools, it may 
be, the young converts were instructed in catechet- 
ical schools. They were taught the great doctrines 
of the Christian religion and were compelled to 
memorize passages from the Old and New Testa- 
ments. These schools were called the Sabbath 
Schools of the first ages of Christianity, and were 
most effectual missionary agents in the early 
church. After the long night of ignorance, 
which prevailed during the dark ages, the schools 
were revived. The catechetical classes of the 
Germans, Swiss, and English reformers were the 
germ of the modern Sunday School. As early as 
1527, Luther gathered the German youths in cate- 
chetical schools on the Lord's Day. The modern 
Sunday School laid its foundation in the closing 
years of the eighteenth century. Sunday schools 
in this country were sporadic. There are several 
towns in different states which claim the honor of 
having had the first Sunday School in America, 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 6 1 

There was one in Roxbury, Mass. in 1674 and 
one in Plymouth six years later. Ludwig Hocker 
established one in Ephrata, Lancaster Co., Pa., 
in 1740. For more than thirty-five years instruc- 
tion was given from God's Word on the Sabbath in 
this place, until the building was turned into a hos- 
pital in 1777. The First-Day, or Sunday-school 
Society was formed in Philadelphia, Jan. nth, 
1791. Its design was to give religious instruction 
to poor children on Sunday. It spent upwards of 
$4,000 in the support of schools in nine years. 
This society still continues its blessed work, giving 
books, papers, &c, to needy schools in that city. 
It has expended in these donations about $40,000. 
The modern Sunday-school, in other lands, dates 
its origin with the school of Robert Raikes, in 
Gloucester, England, in 1781. It is said by many 
that this was the origin of modern Sunday-schools 
in the world ; but why not concede the honor to 
our own land, which had these schools much 
earlier ? Robert Raikes opened his school at 10 
a.m. At 12 m. they took a recess of an hour ; 
then they read a lesson and went to church. They 
repeated the catechism until 5 p. m., when they 
were told to go home quietly. He employed female 
teachers, whom he paid a shilling per day.* 

In our own country the Sunday-school has 
been in perfect keeping with the genius of our de- 



* American Encyclo, Schaflf Herzog (art's S. S.) 



62 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

velopment. In 1827, according to the estimate of 
the American Sunday School Union, the total num- 
ber of scholars enrolled in different countries was 
1,350,000. In 185 1 the total number attending 
Sunday-schools in Great Britain was 2,987,980. 
The number of scholars in the United States at 
that time was about 3,000,000. In 1874 we had 
69,871 schools; 753,060 teachers; and 5,790,683 
scholars. In 1881 we had 84,730 schools ; 932,- 
283 teachers ; and 6,820,836 scholars. According 
to the latest estimates there are 1,000,000 teachers 
and 8,000,000 scholars in the Sunday-schools of 
our land. The United States has to-day, on her 
territory one half of the great Sunday-school army 
of the world. From 1874 to 1881, the number of 
schools increased over 21 per cent, and the num- 
ber of scholars and teachers in the same ratio. 
From 1 88 1 to 1887 the increase in scholars was 
nearly 17 per cent, and nearly 100 per cent, over 
what the total number of scholars was in 1874 or 
thirteen years before. 

Some of the oldest and most efficient societies 
engaged in this great work are American. The 
American Sunday School Union is within twenty- 
one years as old as the London Sunday School 
Union, the oldest European society. The former 
expended more than four times as much money in 
1874 as the latter. The American S. S. Union in 
sixty-three years of its work has established 80,- 
000 schools, containing 484,000 teachers, and more 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 63 

than 3,600,000 scholars. During the last three 
years the whole number of scholars gathered into 
Sunday-schools was about 365,000. Of this num- 
ber this society gathered 185,000, or more than 
one-half of the sum total, and more than all other 
societies combined. It was this society which in 
1830 formed the grand scheme for planting Sunday- 
schools throughout the great Mississippi valley. 
This society has expended more than $100,000 in 
a single year of its work. Besides this society 
there are other great unions, such as the A. S. S. 
Union of Massachusetts, The Baptist Union, The 
Methodist, etc. 

The number of books and papers, prepared 
for Sunday-schools is almost beyond computation. 
Many of our large publishing houses make Sunday- 
school literature almost their entire business. 
Hundreds of authors are employed in writing 
Sunday-school literature, which is sent out by 
the ton. Some of our books found in our S. S. 
libraries are not worthy of a place ; many of them 
are most excellent in every particular. One of the 
most encouraging signs of progress in Sunday- 
school work is the attention paid to methods of 
teaching. The true idea of the work, the conver- 
sion of the children is emphasized. In these later 
years there are thousands of teachers, all over our 
land, studying History, Biography, the physical 
sciences and general literature, so as to become 
more efficient in Sunday-school work. They are 



6\ STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

examined, and on completing a prescribed course 
of study are graduated. The following is the 
course for '87~'88 of the A. L. S. C. The entire 
course embraces four years. 

THE STUDY FOR THE YEAR. 

October. 

Hale's History of the United States. 

In the Chautauquan : 

" American Industries — Flour Making." 

" Questions of Public Interest." 

" Current Literature — American." 

" History and Literature of the Far East." 

" Homes of American Authors." 

" Great Events of the Middle Ages." 

" Sunday Readings." 

" Hygiene." 

November. 

Hale's History of the United States. 

Beer's American Literature. 

In the Chautauquan : 

" American Industries — Salt Manufacture." 

" Questions of Public Interest." 

" Current Literature — American." 

" History and Literature of the Far East." 

" Homes of American Authors." 

u Great Events of the Middle Ages." 

" Hygiene." 

" Sunday Readings." 

December. 

Hale's History of the United States. 

Beer's American Literature. 

Hatfield's Physiology. 

In the Chautauquan : 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 65 

" American Industries — Electric Lighting." 

" Questions of Public Interest." 

a Current Literature — English." 

" History and Literature of the Far East." 

" Homes of American Authors." 

" Great Events of the Middle Ages." 

" Hygiene." 

" Sunday Readings." 

January. 

Hale's History of the United States. 

Beer's American Literature. 

Hatfield's Physiology. 

In the Chautauquan. 

"American Industries — Pottery." 

" Questions of Public Interest." 

u Current Literature — English." 

" History and Literature of the Far East." 

" Homes of American Authors." 

" Great Events of the Middle Ages." 

" Hygiene." 

" Sunday Readings." 

February. 

Hatfield's Physiology. 

Plan of Salvation. 

Readings from Washington Irving. 

In the Chautauquan : 

" American Industries — Oil Producing and 

Refining." 
" Questions of Public Interest." 
" Current Literature — Scandinavian." 
" History and Literature of the Far East." 
" Homes of American Authors. " 
" Botany." 
" Out-of-Door Sports." 



66 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

" Sunday Readings.'' 
March. 

German Literature. 

Plan of Salvation. 

In the Chatauquan : 
" American : 

" American Industries — Glass Making." 
" Questions of Public Interest." 
" Current Literature — Scandinavian." 
" History and Literature of the Far East." 
" Homes of American Authors." 
" Botany." 

" Out-of-Door Sports." 
" Life and Manners." 
" Sunday Readings." 
April. 

German Literature. 

History of the Mediaeval Church. 

In the Chautauquan : 

" American Industries — Ship Yards." 
" Questions of public Interest." 
" Current Literature — French." 
" History and Literature of the Far East." 
" Botany." 

" Out-oi-Door Sports." 
" Life and Manners." 
u Sunday Readings." 
May. 

German Literature. 

In the Chautauquan: 

" American Industries — Car Works." 

" Questions of Public Interest." 

u Current Literature — Russian." 

" History and Literature of the Far East." 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 67 

" Botany." 

" Out-of-Door Sports." 
" Life and Manners." 
" Sunday Readings." 
June. 
In the Chautauquan : 

" American Industries — Cloth Factories." 

" Questions of Public Interest." 

" Current Literature — Italian." 

" History and Literature of the Far East." 

" Botany." 

" Out-of-Door Sports." 

" Life and Manners." 

" Sunday Readings."* 

More than 60,000 names are enrolled in the 
so-called " People's College." It is true, in Sunday- 
school work of to-day more than ever before, that 
"Science and the Bible have met, and have kissed 
each other." This course of study does not detract 
from Bible teaching in our schools ; but on the 
contrary, it makes the Sabbath-school pre- 
eminently a Bible-school. It counteracts the evil 
influence of the secular newspaper, the modern 
novel, and the hurry and worry of every-day life. 
If we once succeed in getting all our young men 
to Sunday-school, and place good literature into 
their hands, they will be saved from the u printer's 
devil," who makes his appearance so assiduously 
every Sabbath. 

There is no power which can exercise such 
an influence as the Sunday-school in moulding and 



* We consider this course of study a most excellent one, therefore we 
have given it this prominence. 



68 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

transforming the great crowd of immigrant child- 
ren and youth. It may become the right hand of 
the Spirit in the salvation of our land. There are 
men of good sound sense who advocate, that at 
least one afternoon of the s : x work-days should be 
given to Sunday-school work. It would, among 
other things, counteract the impression which 
church members help to make, that religion and 
religious work are for the Sabbath only. For 
many a child in the city the few hours spent in 
Sabbath-school are the only moments of sunshine 
enjoyed in its young life. Here it receives the only 
rays of spiritual light it gets in its early years to 
illumine and warm its young life. God bless this, 
the greatest agent for the conversion of the young 
in the church of Christ ! There is no garret so 
high and no cellar so low to which its blessed in- 
fluences cannot penetrate. It is the duty of every 
Christian to be interested in the Sunday-school 
work. 

God has recently raised another power which 
we believe is destined to become a great factor in 
the religious training of young men and women. 
It is the Society of Christian Endeavor. This 
association seems to have sprung into being fully 
equipped with all its life-giving powers, as did the 
goddess of wisdom from the head of Jupiter. This 
society originated in Portland, Maine, in 1880-81. 
In the winter of those years just mentioned a 
series of Sabbath-school prayer-meetings resulted 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 69 

in the conversion of a considerable number of 
children. Then came to the pastor, the Rev. F. 
E. Clark, the problem which has perplexed so 
many pastors : How can these children be best 
trained for active christian lives ? The answer to 
this question was the constitution of the first soci- 
ety of Christian Endeavor. 45, Two years after- 
wards, at the second annual conference, held in 
the city of its origin, fifty-six societies with a 
membership of 2,870 were reported. A little more 
than a year after this (Oct. 1884) the third annual 
conference was held in Lowell. There were then 
156 societies, with a membership of 8,905 souls. 
At the fourth conference held at Ocean Park, July 
8, and 9, 1885, there were 253 societies, with a 
membership of 15,000 workers. One year after 
this there were 850 societies, with a membership 
of 50,000. In July 1887, the secretary reported 
234 societies with 150,000 members. In one year 
the number of societies and members was tripled. 
At the last convention societies were reported in 
every state, with but three exceptions, and in every 
territory, with three exceptions. There are socie- 
ties of Christian Endeavor in Syria, China, Japan, 
Africa, Micronesia, Spain, Scotland and England. 
In our own country, in the far West, from which 
our country has so much to fear, and so much to 
expect, the growth of these societies has been 



* "Sixth Annual Conference," p. 38. 



70 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

rapid, and its work efficient. The society is un- 
denominational. On its list of societies every de- 
nomination is represented. Its one great object is 
to get all young people to know the Lord. Their 
motto is, "We are not divided. All one body we ; 
One in hope, in doctrine, One in charity." 

During the year 1887 nearly fourteen thousand 
youths have come out on the Lord's side, and ac- 
knowledged Him as "the chief among ten 
thousand and the One altogether lovely." 

This is truly refreshing to one who has just 
come away from studying government returns on 
the " Manufacture of liquors, distilled and vinous 
and Brewed Liquors," or from the study on "Causes 
of the increase of Insanity in our land." To read 
the reports of these societies after such investiga- 
tion is to come out of a Sahara into the gentle 
light of the sun and the cooling zephyrs of a tem- 
perate clime. Yes, " there is a balm in Gilead, 
there is a physician there, and the health of the 
daughter of my people will yet be recovered." 

But numbers are not the only signs of 
efficiency and growth in the S. of C. Endeavor. 
Their contributions for current expenses alone 
amounted to nearly $5,000 in a single year, whilst 
the amount contributed to missions, Home and 
Foreign, and to charities at home and abroad was 
vastly more. The societies work with the 
churches, and not separate from them, or against 
them. The question, "cannot each individual 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 7 I 

church do all this work, thus avoiding additional 
expense," is not here discussed. The fact that 
each individual church (or all of them together) 
has not, is patent to all. We believe that this so- 
ciety, with its live, clean paper {The Golden Rule), 
its thousands of ready hands, and its warm young 
hearts will in the providence of God, do much in 
helping to solve the religious problem of our land. 
Then, too, there is the Young Men's Christian 
Association, not yet forty-five years of age. The 
rapid growth of this association and the results 
it has accomplished dare not be omitted, when we 
think of the forces for good at work in our land. 
The Y. M. C. A. began its career of usefulness in 
this country in Boston, in 1852. The war retarded 
its growth for a time ; but in i860 a new period of 
development began. In 1876 already there were 
in the United States and Canada about 700 Associ- 
ations with a membership of about 1,000,000. At 
present there are 1,103 societies. The number in 
the whole world is 3,541. It will readily be seen 
that nearly one-third of all the Young Men's 
Christian Associations are in our country. Our 
country has nearly twice as many of these Associ- 
ations as all Great Britain. The total net value of 
their property in the United States is $6,053,259. 
There are 623 general secretaries and other paid 
officers in the United States. Of this number 72 
are in the railroad department of the society. 
Cornelius Vanderbilt has been chairman of the 



72 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

Railroad branch of Y. M. C. A. work in New 
York city for the last ten years. He is at present 
engaged in the erection of a building fully equipped 
for this work, at a cost of $100,000, upon ground 
furnished by the N. Y. C. and H. R. R. R. There 
are 433,369 reading rooms in connection with these 
societies in this country, having an average at- 
tendance of 22,932. Three hundred and forty-one 
report libraries with 264,149 volumes. The value 
of the property of 333 of these libraries is $289,- 
335. There are 528 educational classes in 155 so- 
cieties engaged in various branches of study. In 
299 of the societies 2,105 lectures were delivered 
during the past year. Through the influence of 
167 ot these societies 11,392 situations were ob- 
tained in various branches of industry. In 297 aid 
has been given to women* It reaches out into 
every department of life to quicken and ennoble 
young men. It has its libraries, and reading rooms, 
its lectures, its sociables, its gymnasiums, its public 
meetings and assemblies, its cottage prayermeet- 
ings, and its Bible classes. 

Then, too, we have nearly two hundred prin- 
cipalf Bible societies, with property valued at 
more than two million dollars. The " American 
Bible Society " alone in fifty-six years issued 28,- 
780,969 volumes of the Bible and New Testament, 



* See Annual report 1887. 

| There are many more auxiliaries. 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 73 

and the receipts for the same period were nearly 
fifteen million dollars. In our country a Bible is 
printed for every minute of every day in the whole 
year. The American and Foreign Bible society in 
its report of May 13th, 1880 reported offerings 
amounting to $5,001,620 and total receipts amount- 
ing to $7,925.70 for one year. These societies every 
year make grants of money, books and stereo- 
typed plates worth thousands of dollars. They 
have for many years offered the aid requisite to 
publish new translations made by American mis- 
sionaries in foreign lands. These Bible Societies 
have thousands of colporteurs, who carry the 
Word of God from door to door through every 
state in the land. All these facts must be taken 
into consideration before we are prepared to say 
the church of Jesus Christ is either losing or gain- 
ing ground in our land. It must be borne in mind 
that the great work of Bible printing and Bible 
circulating belongs to the 19th century. More 
copies of the Word have been circulated in this 
century than in all the centuries preceding. The 
first general supply lor the whole country (U. S.) 
was not made until 1829. In 1777 Continental 
Congress made a call for 30,000 copies of the 
Word of God, but the demand could not be sup- 
plied. There was no type and no paper. Now 
that number of copies could be supplied in two 
days. We admit that the country has made won- 
6 



74 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

derful strides since 1777, but we insist that the 
Church has kept pace. 

In addition to these modern powers for good 
there are many others which we cannot pass over 
in siience. In the propagation of evil the devil has 
his Personal Liberty Leagues, his clubs, and his 
rings, (clubs and rings in more senses than one).' 
In the Church of Jesus Christ we have the 
"Woman's Christian Temperance Union," with its 
societies in every state and territory of our great 
republic. We have " The White Cross Army," 
not more than five years old, it is true, but already 
a great power for good. Like the Society of 
Christian Endeavor, it has its branches in every 
country in the world and in every christian denom- 
ination, To these societies belong some of the 
most talented and pure of modern christian young 
men and women, who have consecrated their lives 
to the Master in the rescuing of the fallen, and the 
saving of the pure. In our country the White 
Cross movement has been associated with the 
Young Men's Christian Association. The aim 
and object of this society can best be understood 
from the following : 

" 1. This Association shall be called the ; — 

Branch of the White Cross Army. 

" 2. The object of this branch shall be the 
elevation of public opinion regarding the law of 
personal purity, and the maintenance of the same 
standard ior men and women. 






PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 75 

u 3. The management of the branch shall be 
intrusted to a committee of not more than ten 
members, including the president, vice-president, 
recording secretary, corresponding secretary, and 
treasurer, all of whom thall be elected annually by 
the members. Any vacancy occurring may be 
filled by election at the next following meeting. 

"4. The branch shall consist of ( members,' 
not less than eighteen years of age, and ' associates,' 
not less than sixteen years of age. The latter 
shall be admitted to such meetings only as the 
committee shall deem advisable ; while it is under- 
stood that all candidates for membership are 
baptized persons. 

5. "The members and associates shall be ad- 
mitted after being proposed in writing by a member 
of the branch and approved by the committee. 
Every person so admitted, on signing his name, 
shall receive a copy of the rules and regulations of 
the White Cross Army and a card of membership. 
" 6. The committee shall have full power to 
suspend or dismiss from the branch any member 
or associate for reasons which shall appear to them 
to be sufficient, and to erase his name from the 
books. 

" 7. The general work of the branch shall be 
carried on under the guidance of the central 
association when formed. 

" 8. All expenses shall be defrayed by volun- 
tary contributions. 



76 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

" 9. The regular meetings shall be held 
quarterly, and special meetings at such other 
times as may be deemed expedient by the com- 
mittee. 

" 10. All meetings held in connection with 

this association shall be opened and closed with 

prayer." 

These are frequently modified to meet the 

wants in different places. 

Then, too, we have the Young Christians 
Association, which is in fact older than the Society 
of Christian Endeavor, it having been formed in 
Indianopolis during the winter of 1876-77. "It is a 
voluntary organization of young christians for self- 
training and organized christian work upon the 
basis of a thorough consecration of every faculty 
to the work, and the laying aside of. whatever 
mere pleasures hinder the highest usefulness. 

The " Boys' Brigade " is a kindred association 
with those already mentioned, and was organized 
the same year in which the " White Cross Army " 
was organized. The object of the Brigade is the 
advancement of Christ's kingdom among boys. 
Military organization and drill are used among the 
boys, so as to secure their attention and interest. 
Boys between the ages of twelve and fifteen years 
are eligible as members. After each drill which is 
with rifles for boys who have been members of 
the Brigade for one year, a hymn is sung, followed 
by brief addresses and prayer. No less than 4,000 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 77 

boys belong to the Brigade in the United 
Kingdom. 45 " 

"The White Ribbon Army," a temperance 
organization began its existence in Bethany 
Sunday-school Hall, Philadelphia, in December, 
1884. The organization soon spread to all the 
Sunday-schools of that city and from thence to 
other cities and towns in different states in the 
Union. The object of the association is set forth 
in the certificate which is as follows : "This is to 
certify, That is enlisted No. — in the Temper- 
ance Army, this day having signed the pledge 

' not to use alcoholic or intoxicating liquors as a 
beverage or encourage the use of them in others.' "f 

Another powerful organization of a similar 
kind, well known through England and the United 
States, (the world, in fact) is the order of " Good 
Templars." The aim of this organization is set 
forth in its constitution, which is well known in 
almost every city and town. The benefits of this 
association are set forth in a circular which was 
recently deposited in the pews at a public lecture 
by the members of the order in my own city I 
append the same. It is as follows : 

AN APPEAL TO YOU ! 
Brother, Sister, Friend.Christian ! Please read with care. 

Dear Reader 9 . — A Lodge of the order of 
Good Templars has taken its place among the 

* " Methods of church Work" (p. 66), by Row Stall 

f P. Idem (p. 60.) 



78 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

many organizations already represented in this 
community. It was instituted last March and 
numbers over one hundred members. You are 
asked to join it by the friend who presents you 
with this little circular, and you want to know 
what it is you are asked to join. 

It is a Temperance Society, organized for 
temperance work and against the drink habit. Its 
object is Prohibition of the drink business. 

What must you do to become a member ? 
You must start out on an earnest, sincere resolu- 
tion to let strong drink alone ; to " touch not, taste 
not, handle not," " as a beverage." That is the 
qualifying clause. And to this resolution on paper 
you are asked to place your name. You take upon 
yourself the obligation in so many words, and pub- 
licly, to do what you know to be right, and refrain 
from doing, and help your neighbor to refrain from 
doing, what you know to be wrong in relation to 
this strong drink business. 

You are required to pay a small initiation fee, 
and afterwards a weekly " due," of not more than 
the cost of a glass of beer. This money is used 
to pay the running expenses of the Lodge. There 
are no fines for non-attendance. If you can't help 
the temperance cause by your regular attendance 
at the meeting you can do so by your membership ; 
but the meetings are so attractive that you will not 
miss them if you can possibly help it. That is all 
that is required of you to become a member. 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 79 

Is it a secret society ? No and yes. It is not 
a secret society as that term is usually understood. 
It is secret only so far as is necessary to guard 
against unfriendly interference from without. It is 
" secret " only in self-defence. 

Is it a " beneficial" society? Again "no" 
and "yes." It has no life insurance feature. It is 
beneficial in a thousand and one other ways to the 
individual and to the community. 

Is it a third party organization ? No. It is 
not a political party organization at all. Its mem- 
bers in a party sense are Democrats, Republicans 
and Prohibitionists. They all believe in the prin- 
ciple of Prohibition. They are prohibitionists with 
a small p, not with a party P. 

Now, dear reader, your friend earnestly invites 
you to join the Good Templars and allow him to 
propose your name for memberhip. 

Are you a man ? Join the Good Templars. 
You may be able to save a son, a father, yourself 
perhaps, from a drunkard's fate. 

Are you a woman ? Join the Good Templars. 
Your gentle influence may induce a brother or a 
husband to join with you. 

Are you a moderate drinker? Arc you one 
of those firm, strong-willed men who are always 
masters of themselves, who can u drink or let it 
alone," who need no pledge to keep their drink 
appetite under control, who are independent ol a 
brother's aid and sympathy, who arc indifferent to 



80 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

a brother's fate ? Then join the Good Templars 
and show that it takes a stronger will to abstain 
from strong drink altogether than to drink a little, 
that it is more manly to master yourself entirely 
than to master yourself but half way. We do not 
ask you to take the pledge to save yourself, but to 
save your neighbor, your brother, your boy. " If 
meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh 
while the world standeth." 

Are you a stranger in town ? Join the Good 
Templars. You will find a circle of warm friends 
who will take you by the hand, give you a cordial 
welcome and make you feel at home. You will 
find the lodge room an attractive and delightful 
place to visit once a week. You will find genial 
society, kind friends, pleasant entertainment and 
wholesome work. 

Are you a church member and a Christian ? 
Then you know your duty as to temperance. It is 
no longer a question whether total abstinence is 
right, and tippling wrong. Sympathy and charity 
for the weak and the fallen ; a certain amount of 
self-sacrifice for a good cause ; a certain amount 
of effort and time and money along the lines of 
philanthropy are Christian duties as well as virtues. 

Then don't say you haven't time to attend 
lodge. We have already told you, regular attend- 
ance is not required. Put your name on the roll, 
pay your small dues and help the good work. 
Come when you can. Show what side yoxi are on, 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 8 1 

as the hosts are being marshalled for this great 
fight. Show where your sympathies lie ; with the 
right or with the wrong ; with the home or with 
the saloon ; with the kingdom of heaven or with 
the kingdom of hell !" 

All of these associations exercise their influ- 
ence for good in many ways outside of the chief 
object of their organization. The good they have 
done in the improvement of man's social and spir- 
itual nature is incalculable. All of them, as we 
have already seen, are of recent origin. All of 
them, too, act in harmony with the church of 
Christ. Not a few of them are directly under her 
supervision. It may be said their newness gives 
them their popularity. After awhile their influence 
will wane. But are they not founded upon Truth? 
Truth never grows old. The church of Christ has 
never yet grown old. She may lose her hold upon 
some hearts, dead in trespass and sin ; but the 
number of her members is constantly on the 
increase. 

Let me repeat however, the battle between 
good and evil is not ended. There are mighty 
barriers to be leaped, severe battles to be fought, 
many foes to be smitten, before the victory over 
sin in all its hideous shapes is complete. This 
study would be incomplete, were we not to con- 
sider some of the foes which threaten our homes, 
our religion and our country. Whilst the forces 



82 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

for good have been arming and boldly moving to 
the front, the forces for evil, it is useless for me to 
add, have not been asleep. Some of these forces 
are stealthily, but not the less successfully under- 
mining the influences for good. Clad in the 
garments of light, backed by wealth and adopting 
for their motto liberty and progress, they are 
nevertheless the forces of the devil. Never was 
the exhortation of St. Paul to the Ephesians better 
fitted, as the order of the day for the church of 
Christ in the United States, than now : " Where- 
fore take up the whole armour of God, that ye 
may be able to withstand in the evil day and hav- 
ing done all to stand. Stand, therefore, having 
girded your loins with truth, and having put on 
the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod 
your feet with the preparation of the gospel of 
peace ; withal taking up the shield of faith where- 
with ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts 
of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, 
and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of 
God." 



CHAPTER VII. 

INTEMPERANCE— THE GREATEST FOE TO THE CHURCH 
AND THE HOME, THE INSTIGATOR OF CRIME, THE 
PARENT OF POVERTY. THE FRIGHTFUL IN- 
CREASE IN INTEMPERANCE EVERYWHERE. 
THE SALOON IN POLITICS. REMEDIES : 
HIGH LICENSE, EDUCATION, PROHI- 
BITION. FAVORABLE SIGNS. 

" Men try to bury the floating dead of their own souls in the wine cup ; but 
the corpse rises. We see their faces in the bubbles. The intoxication of 
drink sets the world whistling again, and the pulses to playing music, and the 
thoughts galloping, but the fast clock runs down sooner, and an unnatural stim- 
ulant only leaves the house it filled with the wildest revelry, more silent, more 
sad, more deserted." — Geo. D. Prentice. 

In oar examination of some of the forces 
which stand in the way of the progress of Christi- 
anity we shall mention intemperance as the first 
and greatest foe of the christian civilization of our 
land. Of all the foes of God and man the world 
knows no greater than king Alcohol. He is the 
fiend which furnishes the motive power of every 
species of wickedness with which modern society 
is cursed. He wields the club of the socialist, he 
throws the bomb of the anarchist, and drives the 
blade of the assassin. He corrupts our institutions 
of self-government, he beclouds the brightest in- 
tellects, he robs our homes of bread, and dries up 
the very fountains of domestic happiness. He 
would ruin every home in thd land, close every 



84 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

church, and sacrifice every institution of our civil 
liberty. 

It is said by way of palliation, the drink habit 
is the necessary attendant of civilization. Men in 
these days, when mental and physical activity is 
greatly accelerated, need a stimulant. Then again 
it is said, in the days of our fathers everybody had 
a barrel of w^hisky in his own cellar. Intoxicating 
drinks were used on every occasion. When the 
foundations for a building were laid the workmen 
were treated to drink, when the walls were leveled 
for laying the joists, and when the building was 
finished. There was wine at church raisings, wine, 
or beer, or both were the attendants at every bap- 
tism. In England, we are told, matters were even 
worse. There was a time when gentlemen thought 
" it was one of the honors of their houses, that 
none must go out of them sober," We read of 
u drunken parliaments," of drunken senators, and 
of drunken bishops, and we congratulate ourselves 
that we live in an age of such sobriety. But let 
America continue to sober up for another genera- 
tion, as she has been doing, and our boasted sobri- 
ety will open our eyes. The truth of the matter 
is, that the drink habit of our country, instead of 
being on the decline, is increasing at a fearfully 
rapid rate. It is true, in 1870 we had 3,089 estab- 
lishments, where liquors (distilled, malt and vinous) 
were manufactured. In 1880 the number had in- 
creased only 6.3 per cent 5 but the capital invested 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 85 

increased in these ten years from $66,658,945, to 
$118,237,729, or nearly twice what it had been in 
1870. It must be a paying business , or it would 
not draw so much capital. The wages paid for 
the manufacture of this " liquid death " increased 
in the same time from a little over nine million 
dollars in 1870, to over sixteen times that amount 
in 1880. This does not include the money invested 
in saloons, etc. The total sum is about $1,000,- 
000,000. The value of the wheat crop of the 
United States in 1880 was $475,201,850, or only 
four times as much as the amount invested in the 
manufacture of intoxicating drinks. For every 
dollar invested in the liquor business there were 
only $455, worth of property in our country in the 
year 1870. In 1880 the matter was much worse. 
Then there were only $369 worth of property for 
every dollar invested in the manufacture of liquors, 
and this, notwithstanding the fact that property 
increased thirteen and one half billion dollars in 
those ten years. In 1883, 187,870 retail liquor 
dealers paid revenue in the United States. The 
beerbrewers report 17,349,424 barrels of beer 
brewed during the year ending May 1st, 1883 • ^ n 
1863 there were 62,205,375 gallons of beer brewed, 
but in 1883 the number was nearly 600,000,000 !* 
It is estimated that the liquor bill of the United 
States is now more than a billion dollars. We may 



* Internal Revenue Den. Report of 1883, in J loin. Review, March '84. 



86 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

gain some idea of this sum when we call to mind 
that our public schools with their libraries ; the 
cost of the services of lawyers ; the keeping of 
criminals ; all revenues from customs, the cost of 
the postal service, the salaries of all clergymen, all 
missionary operations, and the sum total paid for 
the maintenance of all our charitable and philan- 
thropic institutions, the cost of all bread stuffs — 
all these taken in the aggregate do not cost the 
citizens of this great land as much as her drink 
habit I* Think of the facts ! Are they not ap- 
palling ? Whilst the liquor bill of this country is 
so large, we must bear in mind that nearly one- 
half comes irom the laboring classes. The 
capitalists in this case receive all the profit, the 
laborers all the misery and woe. The " hard 
times," concerning which we hear so much, are 
not fancied. They are real. But what makes 
them, is not the capitalists, it is the rum fiend. 
Viewing the drink traffic from whatever stand- 
point we will, we see nothing but poverty, wretch- 
edness and ruin for the consumer. However good 
we may feel over the growth of the church and 
her usefulness, these facts take our breath. They 
cause the enthusiasm kindled by thoughts of the 
church's future to die with a single gasp. 

But let us for a moment think of the results of 
this outlay of money for strong drink. Before us 

* Idem, 






PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 87 

rise the darkest shadows. Pauperism, immorality, 
crime, broken hearts, wasted lives come from the 
drink traffic. We are told, crime is on the in- 
crease in our land. It cannot be otherwise with 
such a stream to deluge the brain with thoughts 
indited of hell. The hard times, concerning which 
we hear so much, mean something. The strikes, 
labor organizations against capital and oppression 
are like men in the dark striking, it is true, but only 
at shadows, and not at their real enemies. They 
carry the vulture which is consuming their vitals 
in their own bosom, although they know it not. 
Nearly every outrage committed by mobs is trace- 
able to strong drink. Every murderers's hand is 
nerved for the fatal deed by the demon Alcohol. 
" For nearly every wretched life, every broken 
heart, and every early grave, the cause, direct or 
indirect, is found in strong drink."* And yet, in 
their own estimation, " the brewers are just as 
necessary to the common weal as the butcher, the 
baker, the tailor, the builder, or any economic in- 
dustry !". Are these men blind themselves, or do 
they think others are ? 



* It has been my duty to send the records of, and to make inquiry into, the 
last illness and death of many thousands of persons of all classes in all parts of 
the country. Two great features are shown in these records : the value of 
man's inheritance of vitality, and the modifying force of habits of living upon 
vitality . . . the death-rate is more profoundly affected by the use oi intoxi- 
cating drinks than from any other one cause apart from hereditary. — COL, 
Green, Pres. of Conn. M. L. Insurance. Homoletical Review^ \\ iSj, 
August, 1887. 



88 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

They try to impress us with the thought, (ut- 
terly false, of course) that they are a great wealth- 
making industry, and to suppress them is to invite 
public calamity. Fie on such nonsense.' 55 ' Better 
buy them out at more than twice the amount actu- 
ally invested in every department of their business, 
and pension them and their children the remainder 
of their lives, than tj allow them to continue to 
corrupt soul and body with their poison. The 
amount of liquor needed (if there really be any 
needed) could be supplied by a few manufactories 
and the selling price regulated by law. 

We cannot afford to sneer at temperance 
workers and call them cranks and fanatics. The 
very life of the nation is at stake. What is to be 
done ? " Moral suasion is the only cure," say some. 



* In 1880 there were 3,152 liquor manufactories (including distilled, malt 
and vinous) in the United States. The capital invested, as already seen, was 
$118,027,729; they employed 33,698 persons, and paid them $15,078,574. 
The material used was worth $85,921,374, and the value of the product $144,- 
291,241. In the same year there were 20,313 places where agricultural imple- 
ments, boots and shoes, including custom work and repairing, (but not rubber 
goods) were made. The capital invested was $118,657,333 ; they employed 
178,218 persons, and paid in wages $67,711,736. The value of material used 
was $154,073,915; and the products were worth $276,034,389. The 1 18 mil- 
lions of dollars invested in the manufacture of liquor gave employment to 
33?689 individuals. The same amount, almost, employed in the manufacture 
of agricultural implements, etc. employed 172,218 individuals. The former 
paid to labor $15,027,579, the latter $67,711,736. The former produced death 
and destruction to the amount of $144,291,244, the latter bought the farmer 
boots, shoes, ploughs, etc., to the value of $276,034,389. The latter bought of 
the farmer twice as much raw material as the former. The former was confined 
to 3,152 places, the latter to 20,313. 

Comparison from "Lutheran Quarterly" for Oct, '87, p, 557, 



PROBLEM OP OUR COUNTRY. 89 

Convert the people from their sins and they will of 
course have nothing to do with the liquor traffic. 
" The fault lies with the church, and especially 
with her ministers." We admit it, but not in the 
sense our critics mean. Others say, " let us edu- 
cate our children in our homes and in our public 
schools." This is an excellent remedy, we admit. 
The next generation will abhor the stuff. If the 
home, the public school, the church had all the 
educating to themselves for the next century, they 
would sweep the curse from the land ; but the 
saloon helps to educate, hence the results just 
mentioned. An unwise general is he, who upon the 
field of battle tries to drill his soldiers, whilst they 
are being shot down by the thousand. Many hope 
to find an efficient remedy in high license. It does 
accomplish something. It puts the business into 
the hands of a few, and those the better classes, if 
there be any better classes in the liquor traffic. It 
has been tried in Nebraska, but it has done nothing 
towards waking up temperance sentiment ; saloon 
keepers violate the law, as they did heretofore. 
The same verdict comes from Chicago and other 
places where the remedy has been tried. Are we 
entirely at the mercy of the Alcohol fiend ? Not 
by any means. If the Christian church of our 
land would arise as one man, she could sweep the 
liquor traffic out of existence. The temperance 
sentiment is growing. Under God, the christian 
7 



90 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

people of our country will yet awake and banish 
this great curse. The Prohibition Party, so much 
despised by politicians, is rapidly wending its way 
upwards in numbers and onwards to success, I 
do not say that there are no party politicians in the 
bad sense of the phrase, in this party, I do not say 
that there are no kickers and wire-pullers in the 
Prohibition party. Neither do I assert that the 
name of that power which will ere many years 
sweep the saloon and all its vile paraphernalia from 
the land will be Prohibition party, but I do assert 
that if the country is to be saved from total de- 
bauchery and ruin the principles of the Prohibition 
party on this great question, must triumph. 

I know that king Alcohol is a mighty giant in 
politics who threatens to club to death the party 
that opposes his reign. His forces are well organ- 
ized and are by no means asleep. There is a 
United States brewers' Association to which thous- 
ands belong. In almost every town there is an 
organization of liquor dealers and saloon men. 
These wield a mighty power in our legislative halls. 
Pres. Clausen of the Brewers' Congress held at 
Buffalo, in speaking of a certain measure before 
the legislature, said, " Neither time nor money 
were spared during the past twelve months to ac- 
complish the repeal of this detested law. The 
entire German population was enlisted. A state 
committee of brewers, hop and malt dealers, and 
jthers was largely attended and resolutions were 






PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 9 1 

adopted in which we pledged ourselves to support 
only such candidates who bound themselves to 
work for the repeal of the excise law, and thereby 
check the exertions of the temperance party." 
And they accomplished the repeal of that hated 
law, in the assembly by a majority of twenty. 

The personal Liberty party, recently organized 
in New York, held a meeting at Albany Oct. 6th, 
1887. It was stated by the delegates that the 
party would be able to control no less than 76,000 
votes throughout the state. The number we found 
was not much over-rated. The better class of 
Germans condemn the sentiments of this new 
league for the destruction of our most sacred in- 
stitutions. What each candidate must answer 
before he can receive the support of these men is, 
whether he will favor a law to open the liquor 
stores from 2 p. m. until midnight on Sunday ! 
The number of saloon keepers and liquor dealers 
of every description in every political convention 
plainly shows to whose " interest " political parties 
must cater. Brooklyn sent thirteen liquor dealers 
out of sixty-one delegates to the State Convention 
in Sept. 1887 to nominate the Democratic ticket. 
The Republicans had twenty-nine liquor dealers 
out of two hundred and thirty delegates.* The 
above are only a few examples of the power of 
the liquor traffic in American politics of to-day. 



Voice, Sept. '87. 



92 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

How can this power be put down and the life 
ol our institutions, so dear to every true American, 
be preserved except by meeting the enemy on his 
own ground ? Prohibitionists, especially, and 
temperance workers in general, are doing this. In 
1886 Prohibitionists sent out 10,000,000 pages of 
printed matter from their national headquarters. 
The congressional vote of the party in New York 
in '86 was 52,517. In New Jersey the prohibition 
vote more than tripled itself in two years. In the 
two states mentioned with Pennsylvania the pro- 
hibition vote showed a gain of 91 per cent, in two 
years. We see therefore that the sentiment is rapidly 
growing. The election of this year ('87), though 
an " off year," shows a commendable increase in 
the Prohibition vote. The number of Prohibition 
counties is largely increased. In those states 
where prohibition has been tried it has not by any 
means proven a failure. These pioneers in the 
settlement of the principles which in the end must 
triumph, if the nation shall live, experience diffi- 
culties which will no longer exist when the 
majority of states shall have followed their exam- 
ple. The following article from the Philadelphia 
Press speaks for itself: 

" Every campaign for the adoption of a pro- 
hibitory amendment is fertile in literature and 
interesting facts on the subject. The recent cam- 
paign in Texas has been especially so. The 
fierceness with which it was contested and the 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 93 

necessity of appealing to the intelligence of the 
people compelled the opponents of the saloon to 
present every argument possible in their favor. 
Iowa and Kansas being prohibition states, were 
appealed to for facts in support of suppressing the 
liquor traffic by state action, and they were able to 
give some significant statistics refuting the stock 
argument of the saloon men that prohibition in- 
jures the business of the communities that adopt it. 
Governor Martin, of Kansas, for instance, was 
able to show by the census of 1885 that there is no 
truth in these claims of the anti-prohibitionists, and 
to assert that his state had never been so prosper- 
ous as now, and that its prosperity had been in a 
direct ratio to the thoroughness with which the 
law has been enforced. 

Governor Larrabee, of Iowa, when asked to 
give the result of prohibition in that state, reported 
a large decrease in crime and a successful enforce- 
ment of the law in eighty-five of the ninety-nine 
counties. The Des Moines Register also prints 
figures taken from the county assessors' books 
which effectively disprove the claim that prohibi- 
tion has injured business and the value of property 
in Iowa. Attorney General Baker of the same 
state, wrote to the Texas Prohibitionists that the 
only business hurt by the suppression of the liquor 
traffic were those of the criminal lawyers, sheriffs, 
saloon keepers and keepers of gambling houses. 
Ample evidence was recently printed of the gooc| 



94 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

effect of prohibition in Atlanta, and the Constitu- 
tion^ of that place, has since reinforced its previous 
statements by interviews with the leading business 
men in the city, a majority of whom are decidedly 
of the opinion that trade has sensibly improved 
since the new law went into effect one year ago. 
A thorough canvass of Maine, made by the Lewis- 
town Journal during the past few weeks, shows 
that the law is completely enforced in three-fourths 
of that state and is a dead letter in less than one- 
tenth. 

All these facts in regard to the success of 
prohibition in different states and localities are 
significant, and one of the good results of such a 
campaign as that of Texas is in making them pub- 
lic. The evident failure of prohibition in Rhode 
Island can not counterbalance its success in larger 
and more important states. The results of 
prohibition by local option have been especially 
encouraging in the South, and the same method is 
to be tried soon in Michigan. It is evident that 
the temperance cause is advancing steadily and 
that it is making the greatest progress where it is 
kept free from politics. The Savannah News 
ascribes its success in Georgia to this policy, be- 
cause, as it says, " It has not only made votes for 
temperance, but it has insured a sentiment strong 
enough to enforce prohibition where it has been 
adopted." 

The Atlanta, Ga., Constitution gives the fol- 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 95 

lowing encouraging account of a year's experience 
under Prohibition in that city. It ought to be 
sufficient to correct all false statements which are 
made in regard to it : 

The election at which prohibition was put on 
trial in this city is entitled to a place among great 
events. No election of a local nature was ever 
before held in a city of 60,000 people in which 
more was involved. It has now been eighteen 
months since the election, and twelve months 
since the law went into effect. We are prepared 
thus from observation to note results. 

Prohibition in this city does prohibit. The 
law is observed as well as the law against carrying 
concealed weapons, gambling, theft, and other 
offenses of like character. In consideration of the 
small majority with which prohibition was carried, 
and the large number of people who were opposed 
to seeing it prohibit, the law has been marvelously 
well observed. 

Prohibition has not injured the city financially. 
According to the assessors' books property in the 
city has increased over two millions of dollars. 
Taxes have not been increased. Two streets in 
the city, Decatur and Peters, were known as liquor 
streets. It was hardly considered proper for a 
lady to walk these streets without an escort. Now 
they are just as orderly as any in the city. Prop- 
erty on them has advanced from 10 to 25 per cent. 
The loss of $40,000 revenue, consequent on closing 



g6 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

the saloons, has tended in no degree to impede the 
city's progress in any direction. Large appropria- 
tions have been made to the water works, the 
public schools, the Piedmont fair, and other im- 
provements. The business men have raised 
$400,000 to build the Atlanta and Hawkinsville 
Railroad. The number of city banks is to be in- 
creased to five. The coming of four new railroads 
has been settled during the year. Fifteen new 
stores containing house-furnishing goods have been 
started since prohibition went into effect. These 
are doing well. More furniture has been sold to 
mechanics and laboring men in the last twelve 
months than in any twelve months during the his- 
tory of the city. The manufacturing establishments 
of the city have received new life. A glass factory 
has been built. A cotton seed oil mill is being 
built worth $125,000. All improvement compan- 
ies with a basis in real estate have seen their stock 
doubled in value since the election on prohibition. 

Stores in which the liquor trade was con- 
ducted are not vacant, but are now occupied by 
other lines of trade. According to the real estate 
men, more laborers and men of limited means are 
buying lots than ever before. Rents are more 
promptly paid than formerly. More houses are 
rented by the same number of families than here- 
tofore. Before prohibition, sometimes as many as 
three families lived in one house. The heads of 
those families, now not spending their money for 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 97 

drink, are each able to rent a house, thus using 
three instead of one. Working men who formerly 
spent a great part of their money for liquor, now 
spend it in food and clothes for their families. The 
retail grocery men sell more goods and collect 
their bills better than ever before. Thus they are 
able to settle more promptly with the wholesale 
men. 

A perceptible increase has been noticed in the 
number of people who ride on the street cars. 
According to the coal dealers, many people bought 
coal and stored it away last winter, who had never 
been known to do so before. Others who had 
been accustomed to buying two or three tons on 
time, this last winter bought seven or eight and 
paid cash for it. A leading proprietor ot a millin- 
ery store said that he had sold more hats and 
bonnets to laboring men for their wives and 
daughters than ever before in the history of his 
business. Contractors say their men do better 
work, and on Saturday evenings when they receive 
their week's wages, spend the same for flour, 
hams, dry goods, or other necessary things for 
their families. Thus they are in better spirits, have 
more hope, and are not inclined to strike and 
growl about higher wages. 

Attendance upon the public schools has in- 
creased. The Superintendent of Public Instruction 
said in his report to the Board of Education made 
January 1, 1887 : 



98 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

" During the past year it has become a sub- 
ject of remark by teachers in the schools and by 
visitors that the children were more tidy, were 
better dressed, were better shod and presented a 
neater appearance than ever before. Less trouble 
has been experienced in having parents purchase 
books required by the rules, fewer children have 
been withdrawn to aid in supporting the family, 
the higher classes in the grammar schools have 
been fuller, and more children have been promoted 
to the high schools, both male and female, than 
ever before in the history of the schools. All these 
indications point to the increased prosperity of the 
city, and to the growing interest in the cause of 
education on the part of the people." 

There has been a marked increase in at- 
tendance upon the Sunday-schools of the city. 
This is especially noticeable among the suburban 
churches. Many children have started to the 
Sunday-schools who were not able to attend for 
want of proper clothing. Attendance upon the 
different churches is far better. From 1500 to 
2000 people have joined the various churches of 
the city during the year. 

The determination on the part of the people 
to prohibit the liquor traffic has stimulated a dis- 
position to do away with other evils. The laws 
against gambling are rigidly enforced. A consid- 
erable stock of gamblers' tools gathered together 
by the police for several years past was recently 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 99 

used for the purpose of making a large bon-fire 
on one ot the unoccupied squares of the city. 
The City Council has refused longer to grant 
license to bucket-shops, thus putting the seal 
of its condemnation upon trade, in future, of all 
kinds of liquor traffic. 

All of these reforms have had a decided 
tendency to diminish crime. Two weeks were 
necessary formerly to get through with the crimi- 
nal docket. During the present year it was closed 
out in two days. The chain gang is almost left 
with nothing but the chains and the balls. The 
gang part would not be large enough to work the 
public roads of the country were it not augmented 
by fresh supplies from the surrounding counties. 
The city government is in the hands of our best 
citizens 

The majority in this county in favor of prohi- 
bition was only 235. Such a change has taken 
place in public sentiment, however, that now there 
is hardly a respectable anti-prohibitionist in the 
city who favors a return to bar-rooms. There is 
very little drinking in the city. There has been 
40 per cent, falling off in the number of arrests, 
notwithstanding there has been a rigid interpreta- 
tion of the law under which arrests are made. 
Formerly if a man. was sober enough to walk 
home he was not molested. Now if there is the 
slightest variation from that state in which the 
centre of gravity falls in a line inside the base, the 



IOO STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

party is made to answer for such variation at the 
station-house. 

Our experience has demonstrated to us be- 
yond a doubt that a city of 60,000 inhabitants can 
get along and advance at a solid and constant rate 
without the liquor traffic." 

Whilst the foe is strong, the forces that are 
being brought for his overthrow are stronger, 
because they are backed by the eternal principles 
of right. There is no question as to which shall 
ultimately triumph. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

SABBATH DESECRATION. THE DIVINE COMMAND. GOD'S 

GREATEST GIFT TO MAN, BEECHER, EMERSON. RESULTS 

OF SABBATH DESECRATION. INCREASED LAXITY OF 

SABBATH LAWS AND THEIR ENFORCEMENT. HOW 

THE SABBATH IS BROKEN. PERSONAL LIBERTY 

AND POLITICIANS. SABBATH ASSOCIATIONS. 

THE NEED OF INCREASED CHRISTIAN 

VIGILANCE. 

" What evil thing is this ye do, 

Who God's peculiar day profane, 
Your calling's common works pursue, 

Your journeys, sports and pleasures vain? 
Ye buy — the curse of God — ye sell — 

Your souls to sin, the world and hell." 

Another threatening evil of our land is the 
increasing Sabbath desecration. The command- 
ment, " Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, 
Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work : but 
the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, thy 
God : in it thou shalt not do any work, thou nor 
thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor 
thy maid -servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger 
that is within thy gates," was given amid the 
thunders of Sinai, for the children of Israel not 
only, but for every nation of every age and clime. 
This commandment was never repealed. Its 
sanctity was always maintained by Christ and his 
Apostles. It was the day above all others upon 
which the early church assembled to worship God 



102 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

the Father, in and through the name of their 
ascended Lord. 

It is God's greatest gift to man, and by it, and 
on it, he has conferred his richest blessings* 
Beecher once said : " Through the week we go 
down into the valleys of care and shadow. Our 
Sabbaths should be hills of light and joy in God's 
presence ; and so as time rolls by we shall go on 
from mountain top to mountain top, 'till at last we 
catch the glory of the gate and enter in to go no 
more out forever." Emerson calls it the u jubilee of 
the whole world, whose light dawns welcome 
alike to the closet of the philosopher, into the gar- 
ret oi toil, and into prison cells, and everywhere 
suggests, even to the vile the dignity of spiritual 
being." Let those who seek to overthrow the 
Christian Sabbath in our land succeed, and they 
will rob us of all the hallowed associations of 
christian intercourse and christian worship. They 
will confine the laborer to his toil, until the vital 
cord snaps from over tension, or they will drive 
him into debauchery and vice until his life becomes 
a burden through mere dissipation. They will 
hush the sweet tones of the church bell and close 
the doors of the sanctuary, thus robbing us of all 
the sweet influences of the christian religion which 
is the very foundation of all our domestic felicity 
and national prosperity. To urge the desecration 
of a part of the day will not lessen the curse. The 
command is Remember the Sabbath day, not the 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 103 

morning: or the afternoon ; but the Sabbath day. 
It has been proven time and again that those 
laborers who rest on the Lord's day are the best 
qualified for their work, and live the longest. An 
association of twenty physicians voted yea unani- 
mously on the question, Is the position taken by 
Dr. Farre in his testimony before the Committee 
of the British House of Commons, in your view 
correct ? — "that men who labor six days in the 
week will be more healthy and live longer than 
those who labor seven ; and that they will do 
more work and do it better." Blackstone says, 
" The keeping one day in seven holy, as a means 
of relaxation and refreshment, as well as public 
worship is of admirable service to the state, con- 
sidered merely as a civil institution. It enables the 
industrious workman to pursue his occupation in 
the enduing week with health and cheerfulness ; it 
imprints upon the minds of the people that sense 
of their duty to God so necessary to make them 
good citizens, but which may yet be worn out and 
defaced by an unremitted continuance of labor 
without any stated times of recalling them to the 
worship of their Maker. "* 

History gives us sad examples of how God 
chastizes the nations which forget the Sabbath of 
the Lord. France at the beginning of her bloody 
revolution and fearful suffering rejected the 



* Blackbtone's Commentaries, Book IV. ch. 4. 



104 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

christian Sabbath. "The revolutionary tribunals 
closed the churches and prohibited the observance 
of the Sabbath. To efface if possible all traces of 
that sacred day they had appointed every tenth 
day for cessation from labor, and for festivity. A 
heavy fine was inflicted upon every one who 
should close his shop on the Sabbath, or manifest 
any reverence for that discarded institution."* 

Historians may find the downfall of the French 
monarchy in tyranny. They may trace all their 
rioting, and murder, and woe to the mighty mob 
which had suffered so long ; but back of them all 
was the hand of the Almighty w r ho has promised 
to visit the iniquities of the fathers upon the 
children to the third and fourth generation of them 
that hate him. The end is not yet. The Sabbath 
has little reverence in France to-day, and the peo- 
ple seem as restless and bloodthirsty as in the days 
of the Commune. In the time of George III. of 
England there was little reverence for the Lord's 
day in the mother country. The day was spent in 
card playing, Sunday concerts, gluttony and 
drunkenness. It was then, that England's best 
colonies could no longer endure her tyranny, and 
she plunged herself into a war, in which she 
reaped the bitter fruit of her sins, f The command 
on the Sabbath may be disobeyed, but God's 
judgments are as sure as his promises. Said a 



* Abbott's Napoleon, Vol. I. ch. 16. 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. IO5 

distinguished merchant to Dr. Edwards, " Had it 
not been for the Sabbath, I have no doubt I should 
have been a maniac long ago." This was said in a 
company of merchants, when one remarked, 

" That is the case exactly with Mr. . He was 

one of our greatest importers. He used to say, 
the Sabbath was the best day in the week to plan 
a successful voyage, showing that his mind had no 
Sabbath. He has been in the insane hospital for 
years, and will probably die there." Not only are 
there many in our land who have no Sabbath, but 
there are thousands, who wish to break down all 
our venerated laws with regard to this institution. 
This influence is being felt throughout the length 
and breadth of our country. In the early days of 
New England it was a crime to go to another par- 
ish to hear the preaching of God's Word. New 
England Sabbath laws required all business to 
cease on Saturday evening at sunset. How differ- 
ent now ! The shrill scream of the locomotive is 
heard through every hamlet. The hoarse blast of 
the steamer's whistle calls in the early morning of 
every Lord's day from every wharf from Maine to 
the Gulf. The boats are crowded by every class 
and every age. God's house is neglected and His 
holy name profaned. Trains loaded with human 
freight irom inland cities and towns move to the 
sea coast on the Sabbath. It is the grea: gala day 
of thousands, and many of them members of the 
church of Christ. In every state in the Union the 
8 



106 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

day is desecrated in some way or other. On every 
Lord's day in nearly all of our larger cities and towns 
the milkman, the butcher and the baker and, worse 
than all, the well soaked tippler may be seen on 
our streets. 

In some places the liquor saloons carry on 
their nefarious business clandestinely, in others it 
is done in open defiance of the law, and in others 
in the absence of law to restrain them. In the 
country the day is spent largely in visiting neigh- 
bors and relatives near home, or the horses are 
hitched to w r agons, or carriages and the whole 
family goes to see friends at a distance. The 
visitors and the visited have no Sabbath. The 
weary housewife busy all the week is made to 
slave on the appointed day of rest in order that 
her visitors may go home well pleased with their 
trip. The day is spent by these in speaking of the 
crops, the prices of produce, or in repeating the 
story of the latest scandal. These people say they 
must have recreation. The Sabbath is the only 
day on which they can go. That is because they 
hunger and thirst after riches and the things ol 
this world more than the things of God. Were 
this not so, every one of them would find time for 
recreation and visiting on week days. 

The Sunday newspaper, that most modern in- 
vention of Satan, whereby he seeks to subvert the 
influence of the christian Sabbath, cannot be for- 
gotten in this brief discussion of our county's 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. I07 

foes. The time was when it was a question, 
whether a Sunday secular newspaper could be sold 
in sufficient numbers to pay the expense of publi- 
cation. That is no longer a question. Hundreds 
of them are sold in every railroad town in the land. 
They are hawked about on our streets on the 
Sabbath as on any day of the week. Everybody 
buys them The sales are enormous. They keep 
people home from the sanctuary by the thousands. 
They fill the minds of young and old with news of 
the sports, the crimes, the scandals and corruptions 
of the great world. They smother every pious 
thought, and kill every holy aspiration. Nobody 
buys them for the sermon, or the religious news 
they contain. These are only the cloaks with 
which the Sunday newspaper seeks to hide its 
utter nakedness and shame. The Sunday news- 
paper and the Sunday excursion are two of the 
greatest foes of the christian Sabbath. 

You may say " the sanctity of the Lord's day 
was never so firmly established in our land as to- 
day." But is it so ? In the Report of the Labor 
Bureau ot Massachusetts, published in 1886 it is 
stated that forty years ago trains were not patron- 
ized sufficiently to make them profitable. A train 
on the Eastern road after being run nine years, 
was taken off the road in 1847, because it did not 
pay. In 1872 it was again tried. From that time 
until now Sunday travel has steadily increased. 

The saloon power and the greater part of our 



108 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

foreign population are loud in their cries against 
the odious Sabbath laws, and make strenuous 
efforts to have them repealed. The lately organ- 
ized " Personal Liberty Party" is really nothing 
new. The hope is, that these men will open the 
eyes of the christian people, so that they may rise 
in their might and crush out all such " personal 
liberty." 

Politicians encourage these fellows by assuring 
them, that they will be mindful of their interests, if 
they will give them their support. They say, as 
did a candidate for governor last fall, to a crowd 
of German beer drinkers, "I am not the man to 
interfere with the personal liberty of any one, 
when I get into office." Fortunately for the 
country, these men do not always get into office. 

Another evidence of the fact that we are fol- 
lowing the example of foreign nations in Sabbath 
desecration is found in the loose Sabbath laws of 
the newer states of the Union. In California, 
Oregon, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Washington 
and Wyoming until recently there was no law to 
prevent Sunday labor ; neither is there any penalty 
attached to the keeping open of business houses 
and saloons on the Lord's day. In fact, all kinds 
of business could be transacted on this day, as on 
any other day of the week. Some improvements, 
however, have lately been made by lovers of order 
and society in nearly all of the states and territor- 
ies mentioned. This is chiefly owing to the growth 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. IO9 

of temperance sentiments. Louisiana has a local 
option Sunday law. In most of the states of the 
Union the law against selling liquor on the 
Sabbath ranges from $250 to $500, and in some 
states imprisonment, ranging from ten days to six 
months may be added. These laws it must be 
borne in mind are evaded almost everywhere. 
There is nothing harder than to convict a man of 
selling liquor on the Sabbath. Traveling and 
transportation are permitted, either legally or ille- 
gally, in all the states. Many reasons have been 
given for Sunday labor. It is urged, it is literally 
impossible to close our furnaces on the Sabbath 
without serious loss of time and money. The 
public must have some railroad transportation on 
the Sabbath, it is said. This is proven by the fact 
that the cars are usually crowded on this day ! It 
has likewise been argued that because the muscles 
of the brakemen on our railway trains are not put 
to such a constant strain, he can afford to labor 
seven days in the week. Even if this were so, the 
argument overlooks the most important part of 
the brakeman's welfare. It leaves out of the ques- 
tion his spiritual condition. What is true of 
railroad men is true of every class of Sabbath 
laborers, be their work ever so easy. Looking at 
this question from whatever side you will, the 
truth remains that God's law on this great subject 
cannot be broken with impunity. 

" Heaven though slow to wrath 
Js never with impunity defied." 



IIO STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

The true christian with thoughts of what God 
calls right, and with concern for his family's and 
his country's future, is bound to do all in his power 
to arrest this great and growing evil. But what is 
to be done ? We see how forces are marshaling 
against Sabbath laws ; but Christ's true followers 
are also active. The Personal Liberty party 
aroused the clergymen of New York and Penn- 
sylvania to adopt strenuous measures against these 
foreign usurpers of our holy institutions. Had 
political parties been as ready to follow their ex- 
ample at the polls, the victory would have been 
speedy and complete. With all the courting of 
their favor that politicians do, these beer guzzlers 
will not have as speedy a victory as they imagined 
when they first banded together in their unholy 
alliance. The Sabbath associations of our land as 
w r ell as the law and order societies (which do not 
spend their time in framing high sounding resolu- 
tions that are never carried out) are all a power 
for good. Their literature and their public ad- 
dresses serve, if nothing more, as lights which 
show the yawning chasms which those unprinci- 
pled fellows are preparing in which they hope to 
engulf our glorious institutions. If our christian 
men and women would awake and unite against 
these mighty forces for evil they could sweep them 
out of existence. If our country is to have a happy 
future christians must unite. They dare not ignore 
their responsibilities. God grant that every disci- 
ple of Christ may awake from his indifference and 
criminality on this great subject. 



CHAPTER IX. 

ROMANISM.* ITS GROWTH IN NUMBERS AND WEALTH. ITS 
PRINCIPLES AND ITS ASPIRATIONS. CHANGES IN FOR- 
EIGN COUNTRIES. STATISTICS OPPOSED TO OUR 
INSTITUTIONS CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 
PROPHECIES. HOW TO BE DEFEATED. 

" If the liberties of the American people are ever destroyed, they will fall 
by the hands of the Romish clergy." — Lafayette. 

" Who knows not that Truth is strong, next to the Almighty ? She needs 
no policies, nor stratagems no licensings to make her victorious ; . . . give her 
but room, and do not bind her when she sleeps." — Milton. 

There are not many persons even among 
Protestant Christian workers who apprehend any 
danger to their church, their country, or their 
homes from the Roman Catholic church. With 
many of her members we have become so well 
acquainted in our daily business associations, that 
we know them to be men of integrity. Some of 
the girls who are devout Catholics are our best 
domestics. Not a few have become our sons and 
daughters by inter-marriage in our homes. It is 
true, it is seldom that any of them even after mar- 



* To many it may seem a contradiction to reckon the Roman Catholic 
church among the retarding influences to the Christian development of our 
country. It must be borne in mind that we are speaking of the true church. 
The history of the Roman Catholic church proves her not to be the true church. 
Her doctrines and her present practices confirm this conclusion. She is not as 
great a hinderance to true christian development as Mormonism or the saloon ; 
but she is opposed to the most holy principles of Bible Christianity. Therefore we 
have reckoned her among the retarding influences to true Christian progress. 



112 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

riage with our sons, or daughters have left their 
church ; whilst on the other hand the instances 
are by no means rare in which they have won our 
dear ones from our own household of faith. Such 
instances may produce a few sad hearts and afford 
an admirable theme for gossip for the time 
being, but " only this and nothing more." We 
know they have their parochial schools, but what 
of that ? They pay for them. There is what is 
known in politics as the Catholic vote ; but this is 
a free country. Let every man vote as he pleases. 
It is true, they have the finest and largest churches 
in every city and town throughout our great land ; 
but this is all right. A fine church in a place adds 
greatly to its influence. What have we to do with 
any of these things ? We read of bloodshed and 
crime in the ages that are gone ; but all these 
things occurred in the days of barbarism, and 
could not now in our enlightened age be repeated. 
Especially would this be impossible in our country. 
The Catholics, that is by far the greater portion of 
them, are just as good citizens as Protestants and 
would not be guilty of the crimes of the days long 
since past. The Roman Catholic church of the 
days of Tyndal, Huss, Luther and many others, 
is not the Roman Catholic church of A. D. 1888. 

Some of these popular opinions are correct, 
but most of them are the machinations of u the 
father of lies." Let us look at some ot the facts 
in the case. We often hear it said, the Roman 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. II3 

Catholic church is in her decline. She is losing in 
membership in the Old World, and what she gains 
here is mostly through immigration. It is true 
that at the opening of the sixteenth century Europe 
was held in the firm grasp of the pope. He made 
kings tremble by the sway of his mighty sceptre. 
Since those days marvelous changes have taken 
place. England and Scotland, the greater part of 
Germany and Switzerland, Norway, Sweden and 
Denmark, Prussia and Holland have come out 
from under the pope's sceptre. Thanks to the 
immortal Garibaldi and others before him, the 
temporal power of the pope in Italy is a thing of 
the past. Under the very shadow of the dome of 
St. Peter's Protestants can now worship with 
none to molest them. So great have been the 
transformations in Italy in this respect, that we 
may call them one of the greatest manifestations 
of the power of God in the nineteenth century. 
In the Vatican, where kings did penance, and 
mighty emperors courted the power u of the 
church," pope Pius, the IX was a prisoner help- 
lessly bewailing the loss of his power and his 
glory. It is true that there are now twenty- 
two Protestant churches in papal Rome. It is 
true, that the Protestant colporteur now carries 
Bibles in the very city, where the Spanish inquisi- 
tion once struck terror to the hearts of the noblest 
and the best. It is likewise true that in France, 
which lor centuries was the right arm of papal 



114 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

power, the lowly workers of the Mc. Aall 
missions stations, with no visible insignia of power, 
are doing more for the peace of that wicked city 
Paris, than her police. The progress of Protest- 
antism in many places where Catholicism held 
absolute sway, is worthy of our devoutest grati- 
tude. It is a favorable sign of the times. It shows 
that these people who for ages have lived in super- 
stition and sin, may have awakened in them noble 
aspirations. But do not all these favorable signs 
of the times incite Romanism to one more grand 
effort for universal dominion in our own loved 
land ! Catholics know whereof they speak, when 
they say, " America is the hope of the church. 5 ' 

Glance for a moment at the growth of the 
Catholic church in America. At the beginning of 
the present century the Roman Catholic population 
of our country was but one tenth of a million, in 
1885 it was more than 8,000,000. That is, it in- 
creased eighty fold, whilst the total population 
increased less than sixteen fold. In 1800 there 
was one Catholic in every fifty-three of t'ie popu- 
lation of our land, in 1870 one to 8.3 ; in 1880, one 
to every 7.7 ; in 1883 one to 7- ^ n J ^4 there 
were 6,241 Roman Catholic church edifices id the 
United States. That is, one church edifice in 
every eighteen was owned by the Roman Catho- 
lics. This proportion was less than in 1870, when 
one church in every sixteen (nearly) was Roman 
Catholic. We must bear in mind, that their church 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 115 

buildings in general are much more costly than 
ours. This is seen from the fact, that of the total 
valuation of church property one sixth of the 
amount was claimed by the Roman Catholics. 
This does not include their colleges and seminaries. 
There is certainly nothing in all this for congratu- 
lation on the part of Protestants. From 1850 to 
1884 the number of all Protestant churches in- 
creased 76,327. The number of Catholic churches 
increased 5,019. That is, the Protestant churches 
increased nearly threefold, whilst the Catholic 
churches increased more than fourfold. What is 
true of Catholic church edifices is true of the in- 
crease of priests. 

"From 1850 to 1870 Protestant ministers 
increased .86 per cent. ; but Catholic priests for 
the same period increased 205 per cent. I" In 1884 
there were eleven ministers to one Catholic priest. 
This seems an encouraging feature in our compar- 
isons, but it is not so encouraging if we look a 
little closer. At the same time there were nearly 
two priests to every Lutheran minister. The num- 
ber of Lutheran immigrants is as large as that of 
Roman Catholic immigrants. The obvious con- 
clusion is that the United States are fast becoming 
the home of Roman Catholic priests. From 1883 
to 1884 Roman Catholic priests increased twenty 
per cent., whilst the increase of all Protestant 
ministers was only twelve per cent. 

These are some of the reasons why we assert 



Il6 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

that the great losses of the Roman Catholics 
concerning which we hear so much are more 
fancied than real. Especially is this true so far as 
this country is concerned. Nor is this ail. The 
members of the Catholic church in this country 
are more loyal to their church than Protestants. 
This is seen from their attendance at divine service, 
from their liberality toward their church, and from 
the zeal they manifest in every part of church 
work. They and their children miss no service of 
the church, however inclement the weather or 
pressing their household duties. 

But all this would be nothing to us, if the 
Catholic church were not opposed to those in- 
stitutions of civil and ecclesiastical liberty for the 
establishment of which our fathers bled and died. 
Let us glance at her attitude towards Protestantism 
not only, but towards all of our democratic 
institutions. We need not spend much time in 
endeavoring to show that she is hostile to the fun- 
damental principles upon which our government 
rests. She is opposed to the freedom of thought 
and speech, so dear to every true American. Pope 
Pius the IX, in June, 1867, declared null and void 
the decrees of the Austrian government, establish- 
ing the liberty of the press and the freedom of 
thought. So vehement was he in his opposition, 
that he forbade his bishops to take the oath of 
fidelity to the new constitution. In 1856 he de- 
clared null and void the acts of the Mexican 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. Iiy 

government, which allowed the exercise of all 
religions. During the great rebellion in our own 
land the Pope had the audacity to appoint Arch- 
bishop Hughes, of New York, and Archbishop 
Odin, of New Orleans, to settle our national 
troubles and to admonish the people of the United 
States ! He alone of all European governments 
recognized the Confederate States as a separate 
government.* The free school system of our land 
has long been a source of worriment to our Cath- 
olic brethren. Their cry is, " give us schools to 
which we can send our children, or divide the 
schools equitably between Catholics and Protest- 
ants." "We are opposed to the common schools 
as they are, because our church condemns them. 
We do not approve the system ior them (the 
Protestants) any more than we do their heresy 
and schism, which we account deadly sins." The 
Cincinnati Telegraph said not long ago, 4fc It will 
be a glorious day for the Catholics in this country, 
when, under the blows of justice and morality our 
school system {the common school^) will be shivered 
to pieces." 

Leo the XIII in his encyclical in 1885 speaks 
more moderately, but only because he is more 
cunning, with regard to our schools. lie says, 
fct Take pains and pass effective measures, so that 



* " Romanism as it is." p. 5S6. 



Il8 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

public provision be made for the instruction of 
youth in religion." He condemns those who say, 
" The entire direction of public schools may apper- 
tain to civil power." They would, had they the 
power, crush our common school system at a 
single blow. They express the same sentiment 
with regard to our institutions of self-government. 
The Encyclical, from which we have already 
quoted, says, " Popular rule, which without any 
regard to God (that is, God speaking through the 
Pope) rests on no probable reason, nor can have 
sufficient strength to insure public security and the 
quiet permanence of order." This same encyclical 
characterizes Protestantism as a " dreadful and de- 
plorable zeal for revolution." Of those principles 
the chief is that one, which proclaims all men, as 
by birth and nature they are, alike, so in every 
deed throughout their lives are they equal." 

But these easy-going Protestants reply to all 
this, " Oh this is old. What does it concern us, 
what a helpless pope says and thinks about our in- 
stitutions." The Catholics themselves do not feel 
so helpless, nor do they consider their aspirations 
chimerical. We must bear in mind that they con- 
sider " Protestantism a failure." Says father 
Hecker, * 4 There is ere long to be a State religion 
in this count; y, and that State religion is to be 
Roman Catholic." A former Bishop of Cincinnati 
said, " Effectual plans are in operation to give us 
the complete victory over Protestantism." "All 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 119 

historians agree," says a writer in Catholic World, 
" that the triumph of Protestantism closed with the 
first fifty years of its existence." 

" But what does this signify ?" you ask. 
Whilst we hope that these prophecies will never 
be realized, and whilst we know many of their 
assertions and boasts with regard to Protestantism 
to be utterly false, we must not overlook the feel- 
ings which prompt them. These their prophecies 
and assertions show their attitude towards our in- 
stitutions. Let us not forget the fact already 
shown, that the Roman Catholic church is con- 
stantly and rapidly increasing in numbers and 
wealth in our country. These facts are serious. 
The influence of Romanism because of numbers 
and wealth is known and felt in the politics of our 
country as second to no other ism in the land. 

The authorities of New York city, in the brief 
space of eleven years, gave to the Roman church 
real estate valued at $3,500,000, and money to the 
amount of $4,827 471 ; this in exchange for Rom- 
ish votes, and every cent of it paid in violation of 
law.' 55 ' In that same city the Romanists have received 
millions of dollars from the public treasury ior the 
support ot schools, orphan asylums, etc. In 1869 
alone they received $412,662.26. This is moie 
than was received by all other religious and chari- 
table institutions, Jewish, Protestant and secular 



* " Our Country," p. 54. 



120 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

combined. Let politicians continue to cater to the 
wishes ot Romanism, so as to obtain their votes, 
and the very offices they are so eager to obtain 
will be overthrown ; because the institutions them- 
selves which made those offices, institutions for the 
establishment of which our fathers bled and died, 
will be annulled by the government they will 
found. 

To accomplish this will require persecution, 
intrigue and murder. With all its civilization and 
its improved and purified system, the horrors of 
other centuries would be renewed. Other poets 
might be compelled to sing of Americau patriots 
and christians as did Milton of the Waldenses 
murdered in 1655. 

" Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints . . . 
Even them who kept the truth so pure of old, 
When all our fathers worship' d stocks and stones, 
Forget not : in thy book record their groans, 
Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold, 
Slain by the bloody Piedmontes, that roll'd 
Mother and infant down the rocks. Their moans 
The vales redoubled to the hills, and they 
To Heaven." 

Politicians of this country are not the only 
ones who acknowledge the power of Catholicism.* 



* The Christian Herald says : " Great Britain sending an envoy to the 
Pope is an acknowledgement of his sovereignty, which Protestants regret. 
The Government selected the Duke of Norfolk, a Roman Catholic nobleman, 
or the business, and he was charged to present the congratulations of Queen 
Victoria on the Papal Jubilee, and her thanks for the mission of Mgr. Scilla, 
on the occasion of her own Jubilee. The Pope received the Envoy with de- 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 121 

Let Protestants continue to send their sons 
and daughters to Roman Catholic colleges and 
seminaries, and they must expect to see them 
leave the church of their fathers and enter the 
Roman fold. If Protestants would manifest as 
much zeal for their " church " as the Romanists do, 
there would be little danger to apprehend. Dr. 
McGlynn recently said, " As long as the church in 
America gives the Pope to understand, that it will 
stand no interference on his part in politics, or 
policies here j that it will allow no archbishop to 
say that an American citizen shall never make 
another political speech, or attend any political 
meeting without permission from the Propaganda 
— -then I say all will be well." 

He might have added, " so long as the legis- 
latures of our different states give the Catholics 
to understand, that they will permit no interference 
with our institutions and our public funds, all will 
be well." To say the least, Protestantism needs 



light, and replied that he was deeply moved by these proofs of friendship on 
the part of the Queen, and hoped that the exchange of sentiments of affection 
would not be limited to present exceptional circumstances, but would also 
make its influence felt on other occasions. He was animated, he said, by feel- 
ings of the greatest affection for the English people. The real motive of the 
mission was disclosed subsequently, when the Duke expressed the hope that 
the Pope's influence over the Irish people would be used to stimulate their 
loyalty to the English crown. In reply, the Pope's secretary informed the 
Duke that the Pope had already used his influence with the clergy, but could 
not ask the priests to cease to be patriots without running the risk- of causing a 
rebellion of a sec/ion of the clergy ami the loss of the hold of the Church on 
the people. 

9 



122 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS. 

to be vigilant. The Jesuits' plans are well laid 
and executed with the utmost caution. "They 
blow no trumpets, are sparing with statistics, but 
are at work night and day to break down the in- 
stitutions of the country, beginning with the 
public schools. As surely as we live, so surely 
will the conflict come, and it will be a hard one."* 



* Rev. E. P. Goodwin, D. D., quoted in " Our Country," p. 59. 



CHAPTER X. 

CRIME, THE FRUIT OF EXISTING FORCES. COMPARATIVE 
STATISTICS. OUR COUNTRY NOT ALONE IN THE FRIGHT- 
FUL EXHIBIT. STRONG DRINK AND CRIME. REFORM- 
ATIVE WORK NECESSARY. IMPROVEMENT OVER 
PAST. 

" Each creature holds an insular point in space 
Yet what man stirs a finger breathes a sound, 
But all the multitudinous beings round, 
In all the countless worlds, with time and place 
For their conditions, down to the central base, 
Thrill, haply, in vibration and rebound, 
Life answering life across the vast profound, 
In full autiphony." 

— Mrs. Browning. 

Crime is the outcome of existing conditions in 
society. It is the fruit, the apple of Sodom, which 
matures on the stem which gives it support. Being 
convinced of the perfection of the moral statutes 
of a country, and their strict enforcement, the 
number in our corrective institutions gives us the 
best proof of the morals of the community. Some 
one has calculated that there is a theft committed 
in the United States every three minutes of every 
day in the year. The same authority states that 
there is one murder for every two hours of every 
day in the year. According to this calculation 
about one in every sixty-three on the average, is a 
thief in our country and one in about thirteen 
thousand a murderer. This is only an estimate 



124 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

and assures us of the one fact, that thefts and mur- 
ders are alarmingly numerous. This assertion is 
maintained by the statistics on the subject. In the 
census of 1880 we have a frightful showing of the 
increase of crime. The total number of prisoners 
in the United States was 59,255, out of a total 
population of 50,155,783. According to this report, 
one in every 846.4 of the inhabitants was detained 
in the penitentiaries, prisons or workhouses of our 
land. In 1870 the population was 38,558,371 and 
the number in prison w r as 32,901 or one in 1182 of 
the inhabitants. In i860 one for every 318 of the 
inhabitants was detained in prisons. This shows 
a frightful increase in numbers. On the other hand 
it may be urged, that the statistics for i860 and 
1870 are not as complete as for 1880. It may like- 
wise be urged, that during the war, and immedi- 
ately afterwards, the laws were not as strictly 
enforced, nor were they as far-reaching as now. 
Whatever of truth there may be in these assertions, 
it will be seen at a glance, that they cannot be 
made to account for the frightful figures of the 
census of 1880. 

The following comparisons are w r orthy of our 
consideration. Pennsylvania with a population of 
a little more than four and a quarter millions, had 
one in every 877 of that number in prison. New 
York with a population of a little over five millions 
had 8,808 in prison, or one in every 576 (nearly) 
of her population. California with a population of 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 1 25 

864,694 had one in every 326 of her inhabitants in 
confinement for crime. Of this number 450 were 
Chinese and 47 North American Indians. Texas, 
with a population of a millon and a half, had one 
in every 505 of her inhabitants in prison. The 
laws of Texas and California are not stricter, as 
has been shown elsewhere, nor are the civil officers 
more vigilant than in our eastern states. 

It is worthy of note, that in our own state one 
in seven is a foreigner. In New York one in four 
is of foreign birth, in California, one in three ; and 
in Texas, one in ten. Oregon, likewise a western 
state, and but recently admitted into the Union, 
had only one in 750 of the inhabitants in prison. 
She has one foreigner in every five of her popula- 
tion. Maine, with one in eleven of her population 
of foreign birth, had only one in 1590 in prison. 

Let us for the sake of comparison take a 
glance at the condition of affairs in this respect in 
foreign countries. It will not require much inves- 
tigation to be convinced, that our own country is 
not alone in this alarming state of things. In 
Prussia crime against property, person and public 
order increased sixty-five per cent, in six years. 
This increase was more rapid than in our country 
from 1870 to 1880. In the city of Berlin more than 
12,000 persons were convicted of crime in the 
course of a single year. In Saxony the number of 
criminals increased nearly 100 per cent, in seven- 
teen years. In Bavaria the number of cases in the 



126 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

criminal courts increased in five years from 258,- 
210 to 395,769. In Wurtemburg, during the same 
time, the number of convicts increased 83 per cent. 
In England, out of every 10,000 deaths seven are 
murders ; in Ireland and in France the number is 
eight in every 10,000; but in our own land the 
rate is twenty-one in 10,000. What is the cause 
of this condition of things ? Why, with all our 
boasted civilization, and our increase of christian 
institutions, are our prisons filled to overflowing ? 
This is a question well worth our consideration. 
It is certainly not because our laws are too strict 
and too rigidly enforced. First among the causes 
of crime is the decay of moral sentiment in the 
community. How is this accomplished ? By the 
brutalizing of the affections by means of strong 
drink, indecent literature, and lascivious pictures. 
Another source of increase of crime is found in 
the fact that hundreds of criminals, who have the 
same capacities and desires for lawlessness they 
had before they served a sentence, are annually 
turned loose upon society. The figures already 
given will bear us out in our assertions. Drunk- 
enness brutalizes human nature, hence it is that 
the number of criminals and the barbarity of their 
crimes is in proportion to the number of gallons 
of intoxicating drink consumed. We have seen 
that Maine, with the drink habit largely abolished 
on her territory, had only one criminal in every 
1590 of her inhabitants. Oregon, a state in which 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 1 27 

the temperance sentiment is steadily growing, had 
one in 750 of her inhabitants. In Connecticut, a 
state from which the drink curse has at times been 
largely banished by prohibition, had one out of 
850 of her inhabitants in prison. Rhode Island, 
another state like those mentioned, had only one in 
860 of her inhabitants in prison. Nearly all the 
homicides are committed under the influence of 
strong drink. It can be shown, that those states 
which have the most saloons have the fullest pris- 
ons and the most numerous executions. Take but 
two examples. In 1880 California had one saloon 
to 37 voters, and one in prison to every 326 of her 
inhabitants. Kansas, at the same time, had 224 
voters to every saloon and one in every 768 of her 
population in prison. Those states which have 
local option counties, show marvelous decrease in 
crime in those districts. We see the same truth 
illustrated in foreign countries. " The prison au- 
thorities in Germany give it as their opinion, that 
three-fourths of the criminals under their care, 
became such through strong drink. And half the 
expense of pauperism is traced to beer houses." 45. 

Another fruitful cause of crime is found in the 
minute description in our papers, of every horrible 
crime committed in the entire land. The trashy 
novels, which are literally devoured by the Ameri- 
can youths, exalt the criminal into the hero and 



Horn. Rev. May '85 p. 454, 



128 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

give excuses for all his crimes. What the pen feels 
its inability to accomplish in these descriptions the 
artist's pencil fully supplies. Where these pictures 
are published in greatest profusion, there gross im- 
morality and crime flourishes. What is most to be 
deprecated, these corrupters of the young are to 
be found everywhere. They are on exhibition in 
our shops and our stores. They are carried to our 
front doors and literally thrust into our homes. 
Notwithstanding these facts men of whom better 
things are expected, ridicule such men as the noble 
Anthony Comstock, who seek to enforce the law 
against this vile trash. 

Another source of the increase of crime is the 
fact, that little attempt for the reformation of crim- 
inals is made in our corrective institutions. There 
is nothing so greatly needed in the prisonitary 
system of to-day, as a more direct and efficient 
moral and religious influence upon prisoners, while 
incarcerated and after their sentence is served. It 
has been asserted on good grounds that there are 
many prisons in which the keepers themselves are 
fitter subjects for the cells, than are those who 
actually occupy them. Keepers are frequently 
appointed to please members of the legislature, 
rather than for personal qualifications for their 
resposible positions. A boy who had escaped from 
one of our Houses of Refuge gives the following 
account of his treatment : " After the men ar- 
rested me I was handcuffed, put on a train and 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 1 29 

taken to Toledo. The men didn't tell me what I 
had done, didn't show me any papers, and didn't 
take me into any court, or before any judge. In 
the refuge I had to make twenty beds, scrub a 
floor, and knit thirty-six pairs of socks with a ma- 
chine a day, whether sick or well. Every boy who 
fails to knit his full quota of socks gets whipped. 
Sup. McDonald does the whipping himself. He 
uses a strap out of sole leather, about two feet 
long and a quarter of an inch thick. He'd make 
us get down on our hands and knees when he'd 
whip us. These are marks of some of the whip- 
ping I got (and he rolled up the leg of his panta- 
loons and showed cruel scars.) I have them all 
over my body. McDonald would nearly always 
whip us till the blood would run. Once I fainted 
twice during the whipping. The reason I wouldn't 
be let go home with my brother, when he came 
after me in September was, that I was sick in bed 
from a whipping I got and had cuts all over my 
back and legs. The food we got wasn't fit to eat. 
The meat would often be running all over with 
maggots. One hungry boy was whipped until he 
couldn't stand up for stealing a piece of chicken 
off McDonald's table. In the winter we had to 
carry ice up from the river to fill the ice-houses."* 
There is nothing in the history of the oppression 
of the helpless which can outweigh in brutality the 



* Studies in Social Life* pp. 216 and 217. 



130 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

account above given. Nor is this the only instance 
of the kind in modern times. Every now and then 
some brutality, some injustice, some scandal in the 
treatment of the defenceless is revealed. Paupers 
are beaten, half starved, or left to rot in filth and 
vermin. This is not the rule, rather the exception. 
It must be admitted that prison accommodations 
and the treatment of prisoners in general have 
greatly improved within the last century not only 
in America, but in Europe likewise. For years 
after John Howard began (1773) his noble work 
among the prisons of England, the condition of 
the prisoner was pitiable in the extreme. Jailers at 
that time paid as high as forty pounds a year for 
the privileges of the office. He sold the prisoners 
their food at extravagant prices. He sold them 
the straw for their beds, when they could afford to 
pay for so great a luxury. Even after prisoners 
were acquited, or had served their sentences, they 
could not leave the jail without paying the jailer a 
fee for opening the doors. u The rooms in which 
prisoners lived were small, dark, damp and ordi- 
narily crowded. No bed was provided ; there was 
no ventilation ; vermin swarmed ; prison fevers 
from time to time swept off the unhappy victims. 
No provision was made for the separation of the 
sexes. The child arrested for some petty offense 
was at once introduced to the society of the old 
and hardened offenders."* The conditions are re- 



* " The 19th Century," page 8o s 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 131 

versed in our day. There is an unhealthy senti- 
mentality which makes heroes of some of our 
worst criminals. The flowers and dainties carried 
to the cells of condemned murderers and other 
great transgressors could be put to a better use in 
the homes of the poor and at the bedside of 
lowly sufferers. But we would rather see human 
sympathy misapplied, than to see no evidence of 
man's humanity to man, deeply fallen though he 
be. When once the members of the church seek 
to reform criminals, rather than to make heroes of 
them, human sympathy will no longer be misap- 
plied, but it will be in the line of christian dut}'. 
Then will the school for criminals have fewer 
teachers and less graduates. Already have christian 
men shown an interest in the very men who sought 
to rob them. After their conviction they have 
secured them wo # rk. Their efforts in many instan- 
ces have been rewarded by an entire transforma- 
tion of the life of the criminal. Thus they have 
been the means of saving a soul from death. 

Thus it is that humanity is slowly seeing its 
inhumanity to man, thus it is that little by little the 
evils of prisons and reformatory instiutions will be 
corrected, though the process be slow and the 
progress scarcely perceptible. The exposure of 
evils, the repetition of crime by discharged crim- 
inals, serve to awaken the true and good in society 
to the great needs of the hour. Thus each ol 
these deplorable facts become u helps to recruit 



I32 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

the race by the general plan," which God in his 
wisdom instituted, when man " tasted that forbid- 
den fruit, which brought death into the world, 
and all our woe." 

This chapter would be incomplete, if we were 
to keep silent with regard to that sin which is with 
true emphasis called the social evil. We refer to 
that sin which has manifested itself in its hideous 
forms in every civilization, which has left its record 
upon the pages of history. 

In 1869 the world was startled at the declara- 
tion, that there were 8,600 prostitutes in the city 
of London. It was hoped that this number was 
an exaggeration,' but the revelations made two 
years ago, by the Pall Mall Gazette showed that 
the half had not been told, and that the vice had 
grown with the population. It was then shown 
that the sin was not confined to the wretches of the 
streets, or to the fashionable brothels ; but that it 
was rampant in some of the most prominent busi- 
ness establishments, where both sexes were em- 
ployed. It was asserted that numbers of young 
girls, tenderly trained and carefully educated in 
schools, in country villages, who came to London, 
only find the business, on which their parents had 
built their high hopes, but little better than an open 
door-way on the path leading to hell. 

An Englishman living in Chicago at the time, 
being stung by the jeering remarks made by the 
American press at the expense of his countrymen, 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 1 33 

published some statements in the Tribune which 
were indeed startling. He said " Here in Chicago 
vileness, of the character referred to by the 
Gazette, is rampant, and it is not hidden so much 
as it is in London. Traffic in young girls of tender 
age is not needed, as our streets at certain hours 
find scores of them scarce in their teens, soliciting 
immoral commerce. If the two crimes could be 
weighed in the same scales it would be found that 
more men are seduced by young girls — children 
rather — than girls seduced by men, young or old. 
I can call to mind within less than six years, where 
five virtuous working girls tendered themselves as 
"lady friends" to one gentleman, provided he 
would keep the matter to himself."* This and 
other stories more nauseous the writer declares 
are true of the Giant of the West. What is true 
of Chicago is true of all of our cities. New York 
is said to have 600 brothels with over 10,000 in- 
mates. In the state of Massachusetts bastardy 
has grown five times as rapidly as the population. 
On account of the odium of this sin, there are 
hundreds who practice this vice in secret. Now 
and then these after being long suspected fall into 
open disgrace. All of them become morally cor- 
rupt and unfit to enter the sancity of the home. 
The fact that those guilty of this vice are found in 
our churches, and in the so called higher circles of 



* Social Problem, page 625, 



134 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

society, makes the sin all the more deplorable. 
The fact .that former civilizations were worse in 
this respect than ours, does not detract from the 
odium of this vice, nor does it mollify its frightful 
consequences To speak of the open prostitution 
of the reign of a Justinian, or of the licentiousness 
of James II, or of Louis XV, will not license the 
sin in the lowest circles of to-day. 

The chief causes of this sin in our land, to- 
day, are found in the low standard of morality in 
our homes, the freedom of the street, immoral ex- 
hibitions on the stage, lewd pictures and more lewd 
stories in books and papers. Add to these drunk- 
enness and you have the clew which will reveal 
the whole labyrinth of modern debauchery and 
vice. 

Impure relations of the sexes before marriage 
are the cause of many of the unhappy homes, and 
the numerous divorces. By this illicit intercourse 
young men and women are driven together, only 
to find that they are illy mated, and their prospects 
for a happy life ruined. 

On the other hand, it must be admitted, that 
the church of Jesus Christ was never wider awake 
to the awful results of this evil, or more efficient 
in her labors among the fallen. Mr, Lorimer truly 
says, u There are apparently two streams flowing 
side by side ; the one is black, slimy, filthy ; the 
other limpid, transparent, pure. At the beginning, 
the black river appeared to extend everywhere, 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. I35 

almost bankless ; but when the white one came, 
its channels were slowly, alas ! too slowly ! nar- 
rowed, and to-day, while it is as foul and putrid as 
ever it was, the white river has expanded its 
bosom, grown broader and deeper, so that we are 
not without hope that in the fullness of time it 
shall outstrip and overwhelm its fecculent neigh- 
bor."* Whatever purity that stream has thus far 
attained, let me add, it has attained, because the 
church of Christ is slowly, but surely, elevating 
woman to her true sphere, is slowly, but surely 
expelling all vice in its every hideous garb from 
the world. 



* Studies in Social Life, Page 266, 



CHAPTER XL 

RETARDING INFLUENCES (CONTINUED. ) SOCIALISM. 

LABOR AND CAPITAL, WHAT IS NEEDED. SOME 

CAPITALISTS. IMPROVEMENT OVER THE PAST. 

" Justice, Justice : woe betides us everywhere when for this reason or 
that, we fail to do Justice ! No beneficence, benevolence, or other virtuous 
contribution will make good the want. And in what a rate of terrible geomet- 
rical progression, far beyond our poor computation, any act of Injustice once 
done by us grows. . . . There is but one thing needed by the world; but that 
one is indispensable. Justice, Justice, in the name of Heaven; give us Justice, 
and we live; give us only the counterfeit of it, or succedance for it, and we 
die." — Carlyle. 

There seem to be two great antagonistic forces 
at work in the civilized countries of to-day. Judg- 
ing from the actions of either at times, we would 
be led to think they had nothing in common, but 
this is not the case. They are dependent upon 
each other. Labor and Capital must go hand in 
hand if the highest good is to be attained from the 
resources God has given us. Labor makes Capi- 
tal ; but the latter without the former becomes as 
useless as the tons of gold now are that lie hidden 
in the Sierras. In our country as in the countries 
of the old world, these two forces have formed 
two classes which are rapidly separating in thought^ 
feeling and action. The moral forces which this 
separation has set in operation are antagonistic to 
the development of the religion of Jesus Christ, 
whilst in reality the principles of this religion offer 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 137 

the only cure for the evils over which both Labor 
and Capital mourn. 

The most ungodly of these forces is socialism. 
This is by no means a new ism. Its principles 
manifested themselves in the departing glories of 
Grecian and Roman civilization. Some of the 
saints of the early church are credited with the 
utterance of sentiments upon which modern social- 
ism rests. These sentiments have been largely 
perverted in their adjustment to the principles of 
modern socialism. In order to show its opposition 
to the progress of the christian religion it will be 
necessary to state its principles. " From each ac- 
cording to his abilities, to each according to his 
wants/' is one of their favorite and fundamental 
principles. This does not seem so bad. It sounds 
like the voice of charity; but it isn't. It is the 
voice of a great horde of " vagabond exiles/' cut 
throats, and the best specimens of human de- 
pravity. It has been admirably transposed into 
rhyme, as follows : 

"What is a communist? One who has yearnings 
For equal division of unequal earnings ; 
Idler or bungler, he's one who is willing 
To fork out his penny and pocket your shilling." 

Common property, socialistic production and 
distribution are the ideals of the International 
Workingmen's Association. These men have no 
reverence for the most sacred institutions. They 
do not believe in the doctrine of future rewards 

10 



I3& STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

and punishments. Herr Most says, "Religion, 
authority and state are all carved out of the same 
piece of wood, to the devil with them all." He 
would say with Jack Eade (in Henry VI. part II. 
Act 4.) 

" Away, burn all the records of the realm : 
My mouth shall be the Parliament of England. 
And henceforward all things shall be in common." 

" Down with oppressive capital/' is their cry. 
They were not alraid to try assassination and open 
murder in the city of Chicago during the Hay 
Market riots. They were not afraid to repeat 
their inflammatory speeches at the funeral of Par- 
sons, Spies, Schwab, etc. Ten years ago there 
were no organized bands of socialists in the United 
States, now there are several thousand. If they 
had the opportunity they would systematically rob, 
burn and kill in our country as well as in any other 
land. It is needless to say that these fellows are a 
hinderance to the work of the church of Christ. 
That the intelligent, industrious citizens of the 
United States will ever join these in their hellish 
schemes I have little fear ; but their speeches have 
a mighty influence over the ignorant, indigent, and 
criminal classes. 

Another association to which more than a 
million American laborers belong dare not escape 
our consideration in this discussion. I refer to the 
Knights of Labor. They as a rule, have the wel- 
fare of our country, and the purity of our homes 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 1 39 

at heart. Many of them are efficient members of 
our churches ; but notwithstanding all this their 
practices and their principles must be improved 
if they are to accomplish any lasting good for 
themselves or for others. Says Mr. L. Abbott in 
the Century * to the mechanics, " You combine 
only that you may not work. In one summer's 
telegraphic strike you spent $400,000 for the right 
to be idle. Why did you not spend it for the right 
to be independent ? Half a million dollars, plus 
all the best telegraphic talent in the United States, 
with the sympathies of the nation as a reserve, 
combined to establish postal telegraphy, might 
have given you success instead of failure. Strike 
not for better wages in servitude, but for independ- 
ent ease. Organize not to be idle, but to be busy." 
" Strikes are a costly and a very unsatisfac- 
tory luxury, particularly to the striker. They very 
rarely benefit him permanently and while they 
occasionally remedy some ills they are altogether 
too expensive and uncertain to be relied on. In 
1829 the Manchester spinners lost $1,250,000 in 
wages ; during the following year the spinners at 
Ashton about as much. * * * During the shoe- 
makers struggle in Chicago enough money was 
squandered tu have started co-operative shops 
where all, or nearly all could have been em- 
ployed."! The old engineers who had been "out" 

* Studies in Social Life, page 17S, Lorimer, 
I Idem, page 223. 



140 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

since 1887 because they struck on the Phila. and 
Reading R. R., gladly took their old places a few 
days ago, which were again opened by the present 
strike. They say they have learned too much to 
be caught again. The present strikers* on the 
Phila. and Reading will gain nothing but their own 
dismissal, and idleness and want for themselves 
and families. They succeed in raising the price of 
coal so that the poor cannot buy them, and force 
others into idleness, because the iron and other in- 
dustries must stop for want of fuel. The corpora- 
tion they sought to injure loses little. This is not 
saying that the strikers have no grievances, it is 
simply saying that they are not remedied by the 
strike. Such is the case in nearly all strikes. The 
drunkenness of the strikers in many instances, and 
the wretchedness they cause are to be deplored. 

But is there no reason for all this ? Does not 
capital with its avarice and superciliousness cause 
much of all this ? Many fathers, it is said, cannot 
provide for their families because the wages they 
receive are too low. Their children are compelled 
to assist in the support of the lamily when they 
should be in school. The result is ignorance anc 
depravity. In 1870 there were 75,643 children 
tween 10 and 15 years of age employed in the 
manuiacturing, mechanical and mining industries 
of our land. That is, 1-35 of all engaged were 



.ncy 
and 
be- 



* January, 1888. 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. I4I 

children between 10 and 15 years of age. In 1880 
the number had risen to 133,607 or 1-28 of the 
total number engaged. In our mining districts 
these children are deprived of all home influences 
from the beginning to the end of the week. 

Whilst the number of schools and value of 
school property is keeping pace with the rapid 
growth of our industries, the number of illiterate 
persons is not decreasing as rapidly as it should, 
all things considered. In 1850 1-25 of the persons 
over twenty-three years of age in the United 
States could not read or write. In i860 the num- 
ber was 1-28. In 1870 1-20 of the population over 
twenty-one years of age could not write. In 1880, 
1-29 of the total population over twenty-one years 
could not read or write. This refers to the white 
population only. The continued illiteracy is largely 
caused by the facts stated above. The following 
from the State Sup't of Public Instruction for 
New York confirms what has just been said : 

u Of $475,682 93 increased cost over the pre- 
vious year $461,520.47 were expended in the cities 
and but $14,162.46 in the towns, which clearly in- 
dicates the much greater vigor and progressiveness 
of educational work in the larger cities. The 
superintendent speaks of the large uneducated 
class in the state which is growing larger. He says 
the attendance upon the schools does not keep 
pace with the advance in population." 

The avaricioiisnpss of capitalists is the prime 



I42 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

cause not only of illiteracy but of much of the 
suffering of the poor who must work for starvation 
prices. Let me quote an interview published in 
the New Torh Herald in 1885. I quote from 
Social Problem, page 210 : 

"This is the third reduction since last January. 
If we accepted it we could not make on an aver- 
age more than $3 a week, and we thought it was 
time to strike. I have now to make twenty-four 
sleeves, stitched down on both sides, for nine and 
a half cents. I have been four years an operator. 
I know \xiy business, and the most I can make in 
the winter time, when we are all busy, will not 
average $6 per week. The firm is a very rich 
firm, and I don't blame them as much as the fore- 
woman. She thinks it is to her interest to keep 
us down in price, and she told Mr. Wallach that 
we would work for these reduced rates. She is 
mistaken, and now the firm is advertising for girls 
to work at the rates we have refused. We want 
the girls who apply to know what it is they are 
going to do, and we think when they know what 
the facts are they will not go and do this work at 
these prices." 

"What does the labor on a dozen shirts 
amount to ? " asked the reporter. 

" On the fine class of shirts made by this firm 
about $1.25." 

"And the material, what would that cost ?" 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 1 43 

" Not more than fifty cents a shirt at the out- 
side." 

" Then the cost of labor and material is about 
$7.50 per dozen. What are these shirts sold at ? " 

" These shirts I have been describing are sold 
at about $18 to $18.50 per dozen, retail. I don't 
know what the firm gets for them at wholesale 
prices, bat I should think from $15 to $16. We 
think at these rates of profit they could afford to 
pay us better prices." 

How does this strike the poor working men 
and women who earn from $200 to $800 per year, 
think you ? " It is estimated that Vanderbilt made 
$30,000,000, Jay Gould $15,000,000, Russell Sage 
$10,000,000," etc., in a single year. Moses Tay- 
lor's income is rated at $400,000 a year ; Bennett 
is reckoned at $600,000 ; D. O. Mills' income is 
upwards of $200,000 per annum," etc. 

Such men cannot discharge theit duty towards 
their fellowmen by handsome charities alone. The 
influence their course has upon their countrymen 
is not so easily estimated. 

But have these men no right to accumulate ? 
Yes ; but not at the very expense of the very life- 
blood of the hewers of wood and carriers of water. 

The greed of capitalists and the oppression of 
the laborers on the one hand, and the discontent 
and threatenings and open violence of the so-called 
lower classes on the other, offer the most serious 
hinderances tQ \h$ progress q( the church of 
Christ. 



144 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

The conduct of the rich towards the poor is 
little different even in the church, where all should 
have equal rights. It is no wonder that the poorer 
classes stay away from the service of the sanctu- 
ary when they are compelled even there to feel 
their inferiority, by being crowded to the gallery 
or to the rear. Dr. Cuyler, in speaking of the 
close of a Christian Convention held in Brooklyn, 
says : " The convention closed by joining hands 
and singing, ' Say, brother, will you meet us,' I saw 
one of Dr. Storrs' deacons, and a Quaker, and a 
Methodist standing with clasped hands, and flanked 
by a Baptist and a Presbyterian clergyman. It 
reminded me of the time when we college stu- 
dents, standing thus in the chemical lecture hall, 
the electric current leaped from the charged bat- 
tery through the whole circle in an instant/' So 
soon let me add, that the capitalist and his hum- 
blest w r orkman, the rich lady in her fine silks 
and her poor washerwoman, will join hands in 
friendly embrace in the house of God, and show 7 
by their conduct during the week that the union 
was the expression of christian love, the Spirit of 
God will unite the hearts of capital and labor and 
the labor question will be solved forever. Where 
such is the case already labor and capital work in 
harmony. Charity alone will never solve the diffi- 
culty. It is estimated by competent authorities 
that enough money is spent in the United States 
and England in charity, which if it were properly 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 145 

applied would supply every destitute person with 
the necessaries and even the comforts of life. In 
the United States, in 1880 already, we had 138 in- 
sane hospitals, 15 training schools for the feeble 
minded, 25 institutions for the blind, and 61 for 
deaf mutes. Besides these we have hundreds of 
hospitals where the sick and unfortunate are cared 
for free of charge. These are the outcome, the 
fruit of a christian civilization ; but the sustaining 
of these is not all the Master requires from capital. 
Charity instead of Justice, has been tried in other 
countries and times in the solution of the social 
problem. In the days of Rome's decline she was 
most munificent. " For the convenience of the 
lazy plebeians a great number of ovens were con- 
structed and maintained at the public expense and 
at the appointed hour, each citizen who was fur- 
nished with a ticket ascended the flight of steps 
which had been assigned to his division, received 
as a gift or at a very low price a loaf of bread of 
the weight of three pounds. During five months 
of the year a regular allowance of bacon was dis- 
tributed ; and the annual consumption of the capi- 
tal was ascertained by an edict of Valentinian, the 
Third, at three million six hundred and twenty- 
eight thousand pounds."* We want Justice. " In 
the name of Heaven, give us Justice." Do not 
screw your employees down to the loAvest cent so 



* Decline and fajl of Roman Empire, Vol, III. p. 261, 



146 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

as to pay yourselves greater dividends. Do not 
pay starvation wages so that you may under-sell 
your smaller competitors and thus drive them 
from the field. Honest competition, and not rob- 
bery, is the life of trade. It is this spirit of avarice 
in many capitalists which causes them to forget 
justice. These are in the church and out of it. 
By their avarice they retard the work of the 
church more than they aid it by their charity. 

Wherever the capitalist deals justly with his 
workmen strikes are almost unknown. Let christian 
capitalists and christian laborers both enforce the 
golden rule and its blessed influences will soon 
throb in every fibre of society. In my own city 
we have an illustration of the fact that labor and 
capital can work in harmony. We have capitalists 
who have given our city its very life. In their ex- 
tensive industries there are no strikes. Their 
laborers speak of them only in the highest terms. 
Not only are they at the head of every charitable 
work in the city ; but the unfortunate employee 
who is injured, or detained at home by sickness in 
his family is not forgotten. He receives sympathy 
as well as charity. They are members of guilds 
and societies with their workmen. They spend 
thousands of dollars for the physical comfort and 
spiritual welfare of their employees and their fam- 
ilies every year. Here is another example of the 
same kind from the North American Review^ 
October, 1885. The writer says : 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 1 47 

There is a factory in one of the large manu- 
facturing towns of the country where one of the 
employers, embued with true Christian philan- 
thropy, brings himself down to a level with his 
hundreds of employes. He mingles with their 
families ; finds out the social state and wants of 
all ; gives a word of advice to one ; imparts coun- 
sel to another ; sympathizes with the mourner ; 
puts his strong arm around the weak ; and employs 
all of his ability to raise his workingmen in the scale 
of human existence. He provides a reading room 
for them, furnishes them with reading matter, and 
gives them lectures. Let this example be emu- 
lated by every employer in the land, and riots 
would be impossible." 

To say, as do many, " the condition of the 
workingman is infinitely above that of his ances- 
tor a hundred years ago," will not remedy the 
matter. The condition of the capitalist is like- 
wise infinitely above that of his ancestor. 

We need earnest home missionary work 
among the youths of our lower classes. We need 
legislation for the capitalist who will not listen to 
the pleadings of his better nature. The laws 
which have in recent years, been enacted with re- 
gard to the employment of women and children 
in manufacturing establishments must prove salu- 
tary in their effect upon the poorer classes. The 
following are some of the recommendations of the 
state factory inspectors of New York to the legis- 



I48 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

lature of that State. They ask that they be em- 
powered to demand physicians' certificates in cases 
where there is doubt as to the ability of children 
under 16 years of age to perform the work at 
which they may be employed with safety to their 
health. 

That the law prohibiting women under 21 
years of age from being employed more than sixty 
hours in a manufacturing establishment, be 
amended so as to include females of all ages, and 
including mercantile houses. 

That no female shall be employed in a manu- 
facturing establishment at a later hour than 9 
o'clock at night. 

That the age at which children may be em- 
ployed be increased to 14 years, and that mercan- 
tile establishments be included in the provisions of 
the law. 

That the compulsory education law be 
amended to require children between the ages of 
8 and 14 years to attend school the full scholastic 
year, and providing for officers for its enforcement. 

That buzz and jig saws be guarded. 

That means of communication between the 
work room and engine room be required in all 
manufacturing establishments. 

Providing for inspection of steam boilers and 
examination of stationary engineers. 

Prohibiting the employment in a manufactory 
of any child under 16 years of age who cannot 
read and write the English language. 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 1 49 

That, in the discretion of the inspector, fire 
escapes shall have balconies extending across two 
windows at each lower floor, and shall have in- 
clined ladders running therefrom. 

Whilst some of these recommendations di- 
minish the income of the family in many cases, the 
amount lost in money will be saved in health and 
happiness. The father will have less money to in- 
vest in strong drink which, as has already been 
shown, is the cause of nearly all the poverty and 
crime in our land. 

The principles of the religion of Jesus Christ 
we repeat, must be applied by both labor and capi- 
tal, if these difficulties are to be settled in a man- 
ner satisfactory to both. Until these principles 
are applied the progress of the church of Christ 
among the laboring classes will be seriously re- 
tarded. That day is even now coming. With 
Browning we say, 

" Meanwhile, if I stoop 
Into a dark tremendous sea of cloud, 
It is but for a time : I press God's lamp 
Close to my breast — its splendor, soon or late, 
Will pierce the gloom. I shall emerge one day, 
You understand me ? I have said enough." 



CHAPTER XII. 

GENERAL SUMMARY. OUR INSTITUTIONS OF SELF-GOV- 
ERNMENT THE RESULT OF CHRISTIAN INFLUENCES. 
THE SAME IS TRUE OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF OUR 
NATURAL RESOURCES— OF OUR COMMERCE- 
POPULAR EDUCATION— SCIENCES, ARTS 
AND LITERATURE— OUR CHARITIES. IT 
HAS ABOLISHED SLAVERY, ENNO- 
BLED THE CONDITION 
WOMAN AND HOME. TV/; 
THEORIES— WHICH THE 
SCRIPTURAL ONE. 
EXHORTATION. 

" 0.-. v ..-.- ;.:e ^:::.c c :-:".:. e:v. 

Of old that went and came ? 
But, Lord, Thy Church is praying ye: 

A ihcusar.i yeir= :he s^ir.e '." 

"We mark her goodly bafflements, 
And her foundations strong ; 
We hear within the solemn voice 
Of her unending song." 

• Not like the kingdoms of the world, 
Thy holy Church, O God! 
Though earthquake shocks are threatening her, 
And tempests are abroa 

Unshaken as eternal hills 

Immovable she stands, 
A mountain that shall fill the earth, 

A house not made with hands!" 

—A. C. C 

We come now to the closing chapter of this 
brief study of the Religious Problem of our 
Country. We saw that in all the wonderful progress 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. I5I 

made within the last one hundred years our country 
was foremost. We have seen that our population 
increased from a little less than four millions in 
1790, to more than fifty-four millions in 1887. We 
have watched the development of the church of 
Jesus Christ from a mere handful in 1775, to more 
than 17,000,000 souls, in 1887. We have learned 
with pleasure that although the population of this 
country increased more rapidly than that of any 
country on the face of the earth, the increase in 
the number of church members has been more 
marvelous still. We have endeavored to point out 
the difference between a nominal church member 
and a true christian, and have concluded that the 
churches of the United States are in advance of 
those of the Old World. These conclusions we 
drew from the number and value of church edi- 
fices, from our contributions to the support of 
missions and charitable institutions, and from Sun- 
day School, Young Mens' Christian Association, 
and general church work. We have seen how 
signally God has blest the Missionary and Sunday 
School work of our churches. 

Whilst our hearts were cheered by our rapid 
religious development, they were equally saddened 
by the frightful exhibit of immorality and crime, 
In our comparisons on this subject we saw that 
the older nations equaled and even outstripped us 
in this respect. We have congratulated ourselves 
that much of this increase in crime is onlv appa- 



152 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

rent and not real. No country on the face of the 
earth has more stringent laws or more reliable 
statistics than ours. We have concluded that, 
taking all in all, our nation is as virtuous as any 
either past or present. We have not closed our 
eyes to the real hindrances to the church's devel- 
opment. We have found the mightiest incentive 
to lawlessness, immorality, and vice in intemper- 
ance. Whilst we were compelled to chronicle a 
marked increase in the drink habit, we saw that 
the nation was gradually, but surely, awakening to 
her danger from this source. Already the remedy 
is proposed and we trust it will be efficiently 
applied. 

We have likewise seen that Romanism, whilst 
it embodies much that is worthy of promulgation, 
is in many of its principles and practices averse to 
the progress of true Christianity and hostile to our 
most sacred institutions. 

But we have not yet enumerated all the evi- 
dences of the power of the religion of Jesus Christ 
in this country. The number of churches and 
their value, their work in behalf of missions, 
Christian Associations and societies of Christian 
Endeavor are not the only signs of the progress 
and power of our holy religion. 

(1.) Our institutions of self-government are 
themselves the gift of this religion. " Christianity 
recognizes the essential equality of mankind ; beats 
down with its whole might those aspiring and ra- 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. I 53 

pacious principles of our own nature which have 
subjected the many to the few. * * * * Its 
whole tendency is free. It lays deeply the only 
foundations of liberty which are the principles of be- 
nevolence, justice and respect for human nature."* 
It was to escape religious intolerance and to 
found a government in which the principles of 
Christianity would be honored that our fathers left 
their homes and came to the New World. There 
is no civil liberty to-day outside of christian coun- 
tries. "The very government of our country/' 
says Dr. Spring, "is founded upon the principles 
of the religion of Jesus Christ. The entire code 
of civil and judicial statutes throughout New Eng- 
land, as well as those other States first settled by 
the decendants of New England, shows nothing 
more distinctly than that its founders were familiar 
with the Bible, and substantially adopted the judi- 
cial laws of God as they were delivered to Moses, 
as binding and a rule to all their courts." " The 
Bible is the charter of our liberties." From the 
very beginning the blessing of God was invoked 
in our legislative halls The entire history of our 
nation is evidence that "God is in the midst of 
her." Though many foes threaten the overthrow 
of our country by corrupting her heaven-born in- 
stitutions " she shall not be moved ; God shall help 
her." 



^Importance of Religion to Society. — Channing. 



1^4 STUDIES OX THE RELIGIOUS 

(2.) The development of our natural re- 
sources is a result of the influence of the religion 
of Jesus Christ. The equally splendid natural re- 
sources of Mexico, Central and South America 
have already been contrasted in their development 
with those of the United States ; but the truth 
may be still further illustrated. The State of 
Massachusetts, for example, was settled one hun- 
dred years after Mexico, a country more richly 
endowed by nature than the Bay State. The dif- 
ference in the development of these two countries 
is found in the fact that the Bible was made the 
foundation upon which the people of Massachu- 
setts rested their hopes, whilst that foundation was 
denied the people of Mexico. The Pilgrim Fathers 
overcame all the disadvantages arising from a 
sterile soil, a rugged country, a cold climate, sav- 
age beasts and still more savage men ; and to-day 
Massachusetts is one hundred years in advance of 
Mexico. Some of our w r estern and south-western 
states, although settled before some of our eastern 
states, did not, until w T ithin a few years feel the 
pulsations of that life which has now revealed their 
mineral wealth, and now carries their luscious 
fruits to every city of our great republic. This 
was largely owing to the fact that the same prin- 
ciples of religion ruled the early settlers which 
governed in Mexico and South America. That 
which makes the difference between Florida, 
Texas, Georgia and Louisiana twenty-five years 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 1 55 

before the war of the Rebellion and twenty-five 
years after that war is largely owing to the fact 
that men born and bred under the influence of 
Northern Protestant institutions have entered 
those states. 

(3.) The greater part of modern inventions 
which have lightened the burden of toil and sup- 
plied the conveniences and luxuries of modern life 
are of American origin. Among them are the 
application of steam to navigation, the cotton-gin, 
(of which Lord Macauley said u What Peter the 
Great did to make Russia dominant, Eli Whitney's 
invention has more than equaled in its relation to 
the progress and power of the United States,) the 
sewing machine, the most practical mowing and 
binding machine, the manufacture of India rubber, 
telegraphy, telephony, electric light, etc. etc. In- 
ventiveness is a distinguishing characteristic of 
Americans. The Patent Office in Washington has 
issued as high as 21,000 patents in a single year. 
The United States issues as many patents as all 
Europe combined. Of the five gold medals given 
at the International Electrical Exhibition at Paris, 
every one went to America. Much of this inven- 
tiveness and skill is fostered by our numerous 
wants, arising from our rapid development. Much 
is likewise due to our liberal institutions which give 
the same privileges to all. 

(4.) Our natural endowments and the perfec- 
tion of American machinery, and products have 



I56 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

fostered American commerce. But we have al- 
ready seen that the rapid development of our 
resources and the skill of Americans is due to the 
institutions founded upon the principles of the 
christian religion ; hence we claim that to the in- 
fluence of the religion of Christ is also due our 
large and rapidly growing foreign commerce.* 
The missionary work of the christian church in- 
creases our commerce. " Christianity is the com- 
mencement of civilization and education to the 
uncivilized nations." So soon as a nation begins 
to feel the throbs of a higher life, it also feels its 
wants. There is perhaps no better illustration of 
this fact than that illustrated by the Sandwich 
Islands. The inhabitants occupied the lowest 
strata of degradation. They fed on raw fish and 
the flesh of dogs. They used to excess a certain 
narcotic root indigenous to the islands and capable 
of producing beastly intoxication. The family re- 
lation was unknown, " Licentiousness was without 
limit or shame. Two-thirds of the children born 
w r ere strangled or buried alive by their parents." 
So given to stealing were the natives that expert 
divers carried off the nails which fastened the 
sheathing to the timbers of Captain Cook's ships. 
Through the labors of American missionaries these 
people were christianized. The entire cost of 



* The total value of the imports of the United States during 1887 was 
5708,807,311, against $663,429,189 during the preceding year. The total 
value of last year's exports was $7 15,320,956, against $j 1 3,404,02 1 during 1886. 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 157 

turning these people " from darkness unto light and 
from the power of Satan unto God " was about 
one million and a quarter of dollars. The imports 
to that country now amount to millions of dollars 
annually. The same is true of other countries. 
The native christians of Natal in one year pur- 
chased 500 American plows. Missionaries thus 
become the pioneers of commerce. Every dollar 
invested in foreign missions brings an adequate re- 
turn in the increased commerce. The same truth 
is illustrated in Home missionary work among the 
immigrants in the West and South and among the 
Indians and Freedmen.* We are safe in saying 
therefore that the religion of Jesus Christ has con- 
tributed not a little to the rapid increase of our 
foreign commerce, a commerce which has grown 
more rapidly than that of both England and Ger- 
many, and nearly as rapidly as that of England, 
France and Germany combined. 

(5.) The religion of Jesus Christ is the mother 
of education and enlightenment. The Protestant 
nations have made the most rapid advancement in 
popular education. They alone see the necessity 
of educating the masses. 



* This, it seems to us, ought to take the eye of capitalists. Not more 
than about one dollar for every $10,000 of our country's wealth is at present 
given in a year for the salvation of the heathen. Thousands of dollars are in- 
vested in railroads and mining interest for every dollar invested in missions. 
The stinginess and cowardice of the American Christian is at the bottom of 
much of the danger which threatens our land. When will we realize that nil 
we have and are belongs to Him who has redeemed us? 



I5S STUDIES OX THE RELIGIOUS 

Ancient heathen nations made little progress 
in this respect. In Egypt public education extended 
only to the classes from which the priests were 
taken. Historians account the inhabitants of India 
the most highly educated of ancient nations, but 
Hindoo learning has always been in the hands oi 
the Brahmins. Ancient Rome had numerous pri- 
vate schools ; but their advantages accrued only to 
the patricians and such plebeians who possessed 
property. When once Christianity acceded to the 
reins of Roman government the instruction of the 
masses was made a necessity. In Germany in the 
rural districts very few could read or write before 
the Reformation. In the Unied States every one 
mav gfain an education and attain to the highest 
circles in letters, politics and wealth.* Our schools 
keep pace with the rapid increase in population 
and wealth. From 1S70 to 1SS0 the number of 
school buildings increased nearly So per cent. 
The schools of our smaller towns and rural dis- 
tricts maybe behind those of a few of the countries 
of the Old World in some respects : but they have 
important features which distinguish them from 
schools abroad, and which greatly add to their 
efficiency. Among these are local and county in- 
stitutes and state teachers' associations. 

(6.) Because popular education was early 
considered a necessity in our countrv, the sciences 



rhc causes :: illiteracy have been ^iven in. Chap. XI 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY, 1 59 

and arts developed. To-day these attain their high- 
est efficiency under the tutelage of Christianity. 
The finest statuary of modern times was hewn 
from the rocks under the patronage of our religion. 
It was this that gave the world its greatest artists 
since the fall of the Roman empire. The finest 
paintings which grace our public galleries and our 
private homes commemorate Bible events. Among 
them are The Resurrection, by Reubens ; The 
Transfiguration, and Madonna by Raphael ; The 
Last Supper, by De Vinci ; Christ in the Garden, 
by Guido ; Christ Rejected and Death on the Pale 
Horse, by West, etc. etc. It is true only one of 
these is an American ; but the truth we maintain 
is that Art, in America or anywhere attains its 
highest development under the patronage of 
Christianity. The same is true of science. There 
are those among scientists who endeavor to dis- 
prove the truths of the Word on scientific princi- 
ples ; but the very knowledge they bring to bear 
against the Bible they received in the institutions 
of learning established and maintained by the 
church of Jesus Christ. The advice of Dr. Frank- 
lin to Tom Paine is suited for such. Said he, 
u Among us it is not necessary as among Hotten- 
tots, that a youth to be raised into the company of 
men, should prove his manhood by beating his 
mother." On the other hand, the most noted 
names in the realm of science belong to Christian 
men, men whose fame consists not in the re-con- 



l6o STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

struction of wild hypothesis, but in the grandest 
discoveries of God's great laws. 

7. We see these same touches of heaven in 
our literature. Eliminate the christian thought 
and sentiment from the writings of a Longfellow* 
a Whittier, a Bryant, or a Holland and you w r ill 
not have remaining the skeleton of a song. Chris- 
tian thought and christian sentiment are the warp 
of the best products of the pen. The same is true 
of music. Ancient worship and ancient creeds 
were strangers to the symphony of sweet sounds. 
" Harmony in reality sprang from the cross, where 
God and man were brought into unison ; and 
when this primal discord was being healed, music 
descended from heaven to earth and in time found 
for herself, a voice in bell and organ, and broke 
forth at last in tender symphony, stately anthem, 
majestic oratorio, and in plaintive or victorious 
hymn. The new Faith was heralded by a chorus 
of angels and humanity has been chorusing ever 
since, though not without harsh notes here and 
there — sometimes chanting softly, then loudly, 
sometimes sadly but always hopefully and praise- 
fully.*" 

(8.) Christianity is the mother of charity. In 
this respect our country is not behind any on earth. 
We have our state and our local charities. Among 
these are our hospitals for the insane, our hospitals 



* Studies in Social Life, p. 104. 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. l6l 

for the cure of diseases and for the maintenance of 
incurables, our houses for the aged and infirm, for 
widows and for orphans, asylums for the deaf and 
dumb, and for the blind. The princely gifts of 
stewards of the Lord have spurred others who are 
actuated by different motives to give largely to the 
support of these. A Drexel distributes $20,000 
a year among the unfortunate, a Stuart donates 
$50,000 for a lodging-house for homeless boys, a 
Wanamaker builds and thoroughly furnishes a 
hotel for his lady employes where they have good 
wholesome food and comfort at a nominal sum. 
All of these institutions are modern in origin. 
Few of these institutions were in existence at the 
opening of the present century, either in this 
country or in Europe. 

(9.) The religion of Christ has abolished 
slavery in our Republic. Since the war of the 
Rebellion no man has a right legally to hold his 
fellow man in the bonds of slavery. Human 
beings can no longer be leased and held as vendi- 
ble property. The government of these United 
States now fully recognizes in its constitution and 
its practices that all men are created equal. When 
the star of Bethlehem first beamed upon the earth 
the whip of the taskmaster struck its awful blows 
in every land In the days of Rome's greatest 
glory, the Roman exercised absolute power of life 
and death over his slave. At the opening of the 
present century, " slavery still existed throughout 



l6z STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

the world to an enormous extent. The great mass 
of the Russian peasants were serfs. There were 
nine million slaves in Hungary. The peasantry of 
Austria and Prussia were nearly all slaves."* How 
different the condition of mankind now ! Well 
may the freedman sing : 

" We know the promise nebber fail 

An' nebber lie the Word ; 
So like the 'postles in de jail, 

We waited for the Lord : 
And now he open ebery door, 

And trow away de key ; 
He tink we lub him so before, 

We lub him better free. 
De yam will grow, the cotton blow, 

He'll gib the rice and corn ; 
O nebber you fear, if nebber you hear 

De driver blow his horn." 

u This very course which the gospel takes on 
this subject, seems to have been the only one that 
could have been taken in order to effect the uni- 
versal abolition of slavery. The gospel was de- 
signed, not for one race or one time, but for all 
races and for all times. It looked, not at the 
abolition of this form of evil for that age alone, 
but for its universal abolition. Hence the important 
object of its Author was to gain for it a lodgment 
in every part of the known world, so that, by it 
universal diffusion among all classes of society, it 
might quietly and peacefully modify and subdue 
the evil passions of men ; and thus, without vio- 



* The 19th Century, Makenzie. 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 163 

lence, work a revolution in the whole mass of 
mankind. In this manner alone could its object — 
a universal moral revolution — have been accom- 
plished. For if it had forbidden the evil, instead 
of subverting the 'principle, if it had proclaimed 
the unlawfulness of slavery, and taught slaves to 
resist the oppression of their masters, it would in- 
stantly have arrayed the two parties in deadly 
hostility throughout the civilized world ; its an- 
nouncement would have been the signal of servile 
war ; and the very name of the Christian religion 
would have been forgotten amidst the agitations of 
universal bloodshed. The fact, under these cir- 
cumstances, that the gospel does not forbid slavery, 
affords no reason to suppose that it does not mean 
to prohibit it ; much less does it afford ground for 
belief that Jesus Christ intended to authorize it"* 
(10.) Akin to the condition of a large part of 
the human race at the beginning of our history, 
was the state of woman throughout the world. 
Ever since the religion of Jesus Christ began to 
take hold on men's hearts it has ennobled the con- 
dition of woman and made her man's true help 
meet. It has purified her affections and enriched 
her God-given powers as the jewel beautifies the 
gold in which it is set. It is largely owing to the 
Christian mothers of our land that our nation has 
attained its present glory. The virtue of the 



* Element:, of Moral Science, Way land, 1 



164 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

women of ancient Germany may be extolled with 
the bravery of the men, but it will forever remain 
true that woman attains to her intended sphere in 
that land where the religion of Jesus Christ actu- 
ates and governs man. In the Roman empire the 
husband exercised the jurisdiction of life and death 
over the wife. " By his judgment her behavior 
was approved, or censured, or chastized. She 
acquired and inherited for the sole profit of her 
lord ; and so clearly was woman defined, not as a 
person, but as a thing, that, if the original title was 
deficient, she might be claimed, like other mova- 
bles, by the use and possession of an entire year."* 
u Amid all that rigid austerity of manners which 
the laws of Lycurgus seem calculated to enforce, 
how astonishing it is that public decency should 
have been overlooked ! The Spartan women were 
the reproach of Greece for their immodesty ; and 
Aristotle imputes chiefly to their licentiousness and 
intemperance those disorders w r hich were ulti- 
mately the ruin of the State. The men and women 
frequented promiscuously the public baths, Jhe 
youth of both sexes ran, wrestled, and fought 
naked in the palaestra. "f At the opening of the 
present century women worked in coal pits from 
fourteen to sixteen hours daily. u There was no 
machinery to drag the coals to the surface, and 
women climbed long wooden stairs with baskets 

* Gibbon's Rome, Vol. iv. page 346. 
f Tyler's History, Book i. p. 94. 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. l6c 



3 

of coal npon their backs."* The Eastern nations 
hold that ignorance is a woman's jewel. They say 
the feminine qualities are four, — ignorance, fear, 
shame, and impunity. The deplorable condition 
to-day of woman in India is too well known to 
need comment. In no country have women more 
rights, in no country is she more highly respected 
than in our own. The dark shadows which hang 
over her social life have already been noticed and 
contrasted. God grant that the influences of 
Christianity may soon cause all of these shadows 
to dispel. 

(n.) Nowhere is the influence of our blessed 
religion more manifest than in our home life. 
Christianity has given us in and through our homes 
the mightiest bulwark of civilization. The condi- 
tion of woman determines that of the home, and 
the condition of our homes that of society. Had 
the Spartan mothers known the sweet influences 
of our religion the history of the Spartans might 
have been the brightest in the annals of time. The 
most illustrious statesmen, the bravest generals, 
and the most eloquent and pious preachers of the 
nation have come from pious homes. The homes 
of the earlier days of our country gave us the 
heroes of the revolution. These homes laid the 
foundations of our glorious republic, and still 
shape her destiny. From our homes must come 



The 19th Cent. p. 86. 



1 66 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

the moral forces by which the kingdom of dark- 
ness is to be overthrown. The number of homes 
owned by their occupants is larger in proportion 
to the population in this country, than in any other. 
A decent comfortable dwelling which the laborer 
can call his own will save from much sickness, 
impure living, and the craving after strong drink. 
Put into every home of our land a true Christian 
mother and the social evils will disappear in a sin- 
gle generation like miasmatic fogs before the sun- 
light. The numerous comfortable christian homes 
of our land are the very gate of heaven to many a 
weary soul. 

But we can not point to any one institution or 
department of human life and say it is the best ex- 
ample of the power of the religion of Christ. Just 
as the mysterious forces we call nature fill the 
earth with flowers dipped into every color of the 
rainbow, and store the ripening fruits with sweet- 
ness and the growing grains with their rich sup- 
plies of life-giving power for man and beast, so 
the equally mysterious agency of the Spirit in and 
through the church has given us our homes, our 
charities, our government, our knowledge, our 
power, our comforts, our virtues, and our joys. 
What light this religion has kindled, what comfort 
it has bestowed, what hopes it has awakened, what 
burdens it has lifted, what joys it has begotten ! 
" If I should count them they are more in number 
than the sand." 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 1 67 

And are we to believe that this glorious re- 
ligion after conferring all these blessings will recede 
and dwarf in its powers and happy influences and 
leave our great nation to perish, as the summer 
suns abandon the flowers to the blighting frosts of 
winter ! Is our civilization after all its painful ex- 
periences and slow development to gain a summit 
where hope ends in disappointment and all true 
life is frozen into moral apathy and death ? Will 
it not rather rise above the fogs and mists which 
have so long obscured its glory, to an eminence 
where moral disease can not propagate and where 
its true life is no longer nauseated by odors of cor- 
ruption and death ? There are men who say whilst 
standing in the full effulgence of its light, that the 
sun is gradually cooling ; and so there are those in 
our country who say the power of the church of 
Christ is on the decline. May we not rather hope 
that 

" The beam that shines on Zion's hill 

Shall lighten ev'ry land : 
The King who reigns in Zion's towers 

Shall all the world command, 
No strife shall vex Messiah's reign, 

Or mar the peaceful years, 
To plough-shares men shall beat their swords 

To pruning-hooks their spears." 

This latter view is in accord with the precepts of 
the Word of God. The former has arisen from 
the manifestations of the power of darkness not 
only, but from the misinterpretations of certain 
passages of Scripture. These persons do not be- 



1 68 STUDIES ON THE RELIGIOUS 

lieve that good was ever designed to triumph over 
evil in the present dispensation. They hold that 
the end of this dispensation is near, and that in 
these closing years of the nineteenth century the 
conflict between good and evil will be more fierce 
than ever with a decided preponderance in favor of 
evil. Not until Jesus comes accompanied by the 
martyred dead now clad in the garments of ever- 
lasting life, will the victory over sin be proclaimed. 
Then Jesus will begin his visible reign of a thou- 
sand years in the Holy City. According to this 
view the church of Christ can expect nothing but 
persecution and bloodshed. In our land as well as 
in all others evil will stand upon the neck of 
good, and our Christian institutions for the estab- 
lishment of which our fathers endured so much 
will be blotted out in blood and shame. This we 
do not believe to be the millennium of sacred 
Scripture. We believe that the ^stone which Neb- 
uchadnezzar saw smiting the image shall yet be- 
come a great mountain, and fill the w T hole earth.* 
We believe that, u he shall speak peace unto the 
heathen; and his domnion shall he from sea even 
to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the 
earth, "f Idolatry and superstition shall be over- 
thrown. All nations shall be converted unto the 
laith. It seems to us that apart from the prophe- 



* Daniel ii. 35. 
j- Zechariah ix. 10. 



PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 1 69 

cies on this subject in the Word of God, His deal- 
ings with man all through the ages lead us to 
believe that the true, the beautiful and the good 
must have a proper recognition in this world 
before the "great and notable day of the 
Lord." That evil will be entirely destroyed 
we do not hold, but that the power of good 
will be greatly increased. Even on this earth 

H Evil is only the slave of good, 
Sorrow the servant of joy." 

Our conclusion therefore, based upon the 
promises of God and upon the statistics of our re- 
ligious development is that the Church of Christ 
was never stronger or more glorious than to-day ; 
and that instead of beginning to wane she is in the 
ascendency of power. 

But the battle is not over, nor is the victory 
won. We must still help to spread her board if 
our children are to taste her cheer. There never 
was greater need for vigilance and earnest effort 
among the members of the church of Christ than 
in these closing years of the nineteenth century. 
Christ expects some return for the rich legacies he 
has bestowed upon this country in and through his 
church. How important therefore that every 
member of this church be " dedicated to the great 
task remaining before us !" 



I70 PROBLEM OF OUR COUNTRY. 

"For strength is born of struggle, faith of doubt. 
Of discord law, and freedom of oppression. 
We hail from Pisgah, with exulting shout, 
The Promised Land below us, bright with sun. 
And deem its pastures won, 

Ere toil and blood have earned us their possession ! 
Each aspiration of our human earth, 
Becomes an act through keenest pangs of birth ; 
Each foree to bless, must cease to be a dream, 
And conquer life through agony supreme ; 
Each inborn right must outwardly be tested 
By stern material weapons, ere it stand 
In th' enduring fabric of the land, 
Secured for those who yielded it, and those who wrested." 




OUR NEW BOOK 



-OX- 



BIBLE WINE. §► 



Communion' Wtne, or the unfermented juice of the grape the most appropri- 
ate kind of wine for the Lord's Supper. Rev. P. Anstadt, A. M., York, 
Pa., pp. 79. Price 25 cents. 

This is the title of a neatly printed little book on a subject that has lately 
excited a deep interest among Christian temperance people. Many of them 
are at a loss to see how the duty of total abstinence can be taught from the 
example of Christ on the basis of the so-called "one-wine" theory, which in- 
sists that Christ made, and drank, intoxicating wine, and used it in the institu- 
tion of the Holy Supper. The author has given an extended discussion of 
the subject of Bible Wines. 

The following are the propositions which he undertakes to prove : 

1. The Bible speaks of two kinds of wine, commending the one kind 
as a blessing and denouncing the other kind as a curse. 

2. The eleven Greek and Hebrew words in the original, which are all 
rendered wine in our English version, designate different kinds of wine, such 
as fermented, unfermented, mixed, etc. 

3. The ancients, as well as the moderns, knew how to preserve their grape 
juice from fermenting, and did so preserve it, as shown by numerous examples. 

4. The time and circumstances under which the Holy Supper was insti- 
tuted, prove that unfermented wine was used ; 

.5. The language in which the event of the institution is recorded, prove 
the use of the unfermented fruit of the vine on that ever memorable occasion ; 

6. The practice of the early christian church proves the use of the unfer- 
mented wine at communion ; 

7. The views of some of the ablest Biblical scholars are in favor of the 
unfermented wine for communion purposes; 

8. The moral considerations are overwhelmingly in favor of the use of 
the unfermented wine at the Holy Supper. 

We append a few extracts from letters received. " I take this method of 
thanking you for this timely and very able production. If I had not previously 
entertained similar views, I do not see how I could help becoming a convert. 
I hope and believe it will have this effect upon others." 

" I can not help expressing to you my gratitude and appreciation of your 
article on Communion Wine. It is the best and most conclusive I have ever 
read. I have for years abhorred the intoxicating cup commonly used on com- 
munion occasions, and yet could not see my way out of it." 

" My first and strong impulse is to thank you with all my heart for a dis- 
cussion so scholarly, so fair and temperate, and so conclusive, of a question so 
vital." 

Every pastor, every christian family, should have n copy. Sent free by 
mail for 25 cents. Address 

P. ANSTADT & SONS, 

YORK, PENN'A. 



POPULAR LESSON HELPS 

AND 

SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

-^PE RIODICALS .^ 

Published by 

REV. P. ANTSADT & SONS, 

CORNER DUKE AND PRINCESS STREETS, Opp. City Market. 
YORK, PENN'A, 



TEACHERS' JOURNAL. Designed for Pastors, Sunday 
School Superintendents, and teachers. Issued monthly, with 32 pages of 
copious explanatory notes on the International Lessons, suggestive Blackboard 
Illustrations, Homiletical Suggestions, Anecdotes, Lesson Prayer and simple, 
but appropriate questions. Price 56 cts. a year. 

LESSON QUARTERLY, for Advanced Scholars. 

Issued quarterly — 24 pages, bound in cover. Price 12 cts. a year. This 
Quarterly is designed for the more advanced scholars in Sunday Schools. It 
contains the same questions as the Teachers' Journal, also the same explana- 
tory notes, somewhat abbreviated. The cheapest quarterly that is published, 
when the amount of instruction given is considered. Any scholar who wishes 
to study the lesson at all will find this Quarterly all he needs. 

PRIMARY LEAF. Is published monthly, 4 pages — price 6 cts. a 
year. This is designed for the smaller scholars in Sunday Schools. It con- 
tains the Scripture lesson, a lesson story and the questions answered. 

CHRISTIAN'S GUIDE. Issued monthly. This is an 8-page, 
illustrated paper, designed for old and young. It is printed on fine paper, 
beautifully illustrated with pictures, and filled with reading matter that will 
interest, instruct and edify the readers, whether young or old. Price for single 
copy 25 cts. a year; for clubs of five or more to one address at the rate of 
15 cents a year. Samples sent free. Send all orders to 

REV. P. ANSTADT & SONS, 

"2"orls, IFexin'a,. 



••^UNFERMENTED WINE^ 

—FOR— 

SACRAMENTAL AND 

MEDICINAL PURPOSES. 



Many inquiries have been made by ministers and church officers as to 
where they can procure the best unfermented wine for communion purposes. 
There are wine growers in different parts of the country who make it a business 
to prepare this kind of wine. We are willing to assist any congregation, that 
desires it, to secure the best kind from any one of these manufacturers. 

The following items are taken from the circular of one of the oldest and 
most reliable establishments in Vineland, N. J.: 

Beautiful Grape color — free from sediment. 

It is so very rich in the properties of the grape that it can be diluted about 
one third, if desired. 

It is so carefully prepared and so thoroughly clarified that there need be 
no fear of fermentation. Even after being opened it will keep for a long time 
in an ordinary cellar. 

But — it is not drugged so it will keep open in any climate, or so it can be 
kept in kegs. 

Honest bottles — not deceptive wine bottles. Put up in four sizes to suit 
the varied wants. 

Every bottle warranted to keep indefinitely, and breakage by express or 
freight allowed. 

This Unfermented Wine is the pure juice of the grape, with only sufficient 
sugar added to make it palatable. 

This grape juice is from a very fine quality of Concord grapes, is carefully 
freed from all sediment and is kept entirely in vessels of porcelain and glass > 
it retains the delicate aroma, delicious flavor, and life properties of the grape. 

Thus cared for by the hand of one who has made this a specialty for four- 
teen years, we are confident we are supplying the finest quality of unfermented 
wine or pure grape juice ever offered. As for price, it is cheaper than any 
other in three ways — first, the first cost is less ; second, there is more to the 
quart ; third, there is more body. 

The sick are left quite- destitute of this life giving nutrient, because so 
many physicians refuse to give it a fair chance. Multitudes of invalids, too 
delicate to be benefited by the old prescription of " Port Wine " have found the 
delicious grape juice satisfying and strengthening. The increasing orders of 
physicians prove its value. 

PRICES. 

12 Full QUARTS, - - $IO.OO I 12 Full TINTS, - S5.OO 

12 Full \]/ z PINTS, - - 7.50 I 12 Half PINTS, - • - 2.5O 

Address P. ANSTADT & SONS, 



PRACTICAL 

SERM0NS3EADDRESSES, 

BY REV. A. H. LOCHMAN, D. D. 



These Sermons and Addresses were published at the request of many of the 
friends and former parishioners of the venerable author. Dr. Lochman was 
pastor of Christ Lutheran Church for nearly half a century. During these 
years he preached many able and impressive sermons, some of which made a 
deep impression on his hearers, and have done much good. It was believed 
that a selection from these sermons would be very interesting and edifying to 
the members of his former congregation, and to christians generally. The 
book will be a memento of their former beloved pastor, who will thus continue 
to speak to them from the printed page, even after he shall have gone to his 
reward in heaven. 

As these sermons are highly instructive and practical they will be useful to 
ministers as models of sermonizing, and especially to laymen, on account of 
the deep and fervent piety that pervades them all. They may also serve a use- 
ful purpose to be read at home on Sunday by those who may be providentially 
prevented from attending the public preaching of the gospel. They are also 
well adapted to be read in church in lieu of a preached sermon in the absence 
of the pastor. 

It will be observed that the first two are called Memorial Sermons. In 
these the author gives a brief historical sketch of Christ Church, up to the 
close of his own ministry, which will be very valuable for reference. 

In Dr. Lochman' s Sermons we offer you a book that is well worthy of 
your careful perusal. The author is a highly respected father in our church, 
having spent his life and labors for half a century in her service ; the sermons 
are eminently practical, pungent and spiritual, and will do good when faith- 
fully read. 

The book contains an excellent portrait of the venerable Dr. Lochman. 
Bound in cloth, octavo, 360 pages. Price reduced to Si. 00. for which it will 
be sent free by mail. 

Address P. AXSTADT & SONS. 

YORK, PENN'A. 



Sunday School Supplies. 

We are prepared to supply the following articles to Sunday Schools : 

SUNDAY SCHOOL TICKETS, 

Blue and Red. Price, per sheet of about 250 tickets, 25 cents. 

CHROMO REWARD CARDS. 

Two new sets (four to a set) of Chaste and Beautiful Chromo Cards, sent by 
mail at the following prices : 

FIRST SET, OR FLORAL SCRIPTURAL SERIES, 

Size, 2^ by 4^ inches, 
STYLES : — Blank, Scripture, Day School and Christmas. 

SECOND SET, OR BLOSSOM SERIES, 

Size, 3^ by 5% inches, 

STYLES : — Blank, Scripture, Day School, New Year, Christmas and 
also German Scripture. 

PRICES BY MAIL: 

First Set, per 100 cards, - - - - $ .75 

" " " 150 " - - - - 1.00 

" " " 1000 " - - - - 5.00 

Second Set, per 100 cards - - - - 1.25 

" " " 500 " .... 4.00 

In ordering always state what style you prefer. 

d^p* Parties wishing to examine them, can obtain two dozen assorted 
cards for 30 cents. 

THE SUNDAY SCHOOL ANNIVERSARY SPEAKER, 

Speeches in prose and poetry, dialogues, etc., instructive and humorous, with 
hints on decorations, by W. W. Anstadt. 64 pp. Price 20 cents. 

COMMUNION ADDRESSES, 

IN Press, and will soon be published, a small volume of short addresses (1 to 
5 minutes in length) suitable to be addressed to each table of communi- 
cants. Each address will contain a few well chosen, practical and appro 
priate remarks, impressive and edifying to pious communicants. Intended 
to be suggestive to ministers while administering the Lord's Supper. 
Also instructive and edifying to communicants before and after partaking 
of the Lord's Supper. Prepared and published by Rev. P. Anstadt. 
Address for all the above 

P. ANSTADT & SONS, York, Pa. 



Miscellaneous Publications. 

CHRIST THE MODEL PREACHER 

This is the title of an address in pamphlet form, and published by the 
request of the students of the Missionary Institute at Selinsgrove. By Rev. P. 
Anstadt, York, Pa. Price io cents. 

It is neatly gotten up, and discusses an important subject in a sensible 
manner. 

The Lutheran Observer says of it : " It is an excellent address, highly 
appropriate to the occasion; and presents Christ in his manner and style of 
preaching and in his social character, as the true model for preachers of the 
present day to imitate." 

Prof. Noel writes : " Rev. Anstadt's ' Christ the Model Preacher' should 
be read and studied by every clergyman in the land." 

NATURE AND EFFECTS OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 

An essay read at the York County Conference, held at Jefferson, Pa., in 
May, 1884, by Rev. P. Anstadt. Price 10 cents. 

This essay was prepared according to appointment, and read before the 
York County Conference. After the reading a warm discussion ensued, in 
which, with a single exception, the members expressed their hearty approval 
of the essay. It is published at the request of a number of the ministers com- 
posing this conference, who wished it for distribution in their congregations. 

It is published in pamphlet form of 22 pages, on fine book paper, in large, 
clear type. It gives the different steps in the work of grace, as Awakening, 
Conviction, Repentance, Regeneration, Conversion, Justification and Sanctifi- 
cation. Also the difference between Regeneration and Conversion ; the differ- 
ence between Regeneration and Sanctifi cation, and the distinction between 
Sanctification and Justification. It then proceeds to define and discuss Justifi- 
cation by Faith, and then show its effects ; namely, that it produces, 1 . Joy ; 
2. Love: 3. Imitation of Christ, or good works; 4. Purity of heart, or sancti- 
fication, and 5. Victory over the world. Then four reasons are given why God 
makes Faith the condition of Salvation. It will be found useful both for min- 
isters and laymen to read, and will be sent post free to any postoffice for 10 cts 

SERMON ON DANCING. 

Text : " A Time to Dance," Eccl. hi. 3. Second Edition. Sixteen closely 
printed pages. Sent by mail for 10 cents. 

The author very correctly remarks : " It is not the simple act of dancing 
that is sinful ; persons may dance without committing sin thereby ; but it is the 
manner of dancing, the kind of music danced after, the spirit in which you 
dance, and the object you have in view." 

GRACE ALL-SUFFICIENT. 

A Sermon by Rev. E. Greenwald, D. D., Lancaster, Pa., on the text, "My 
grace is sufficient for thee." Ten pages, 10 cents. Address 

REV. P. ANSTADT & SONS, York, Pa. 



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